ter than Dunnan; there are some things no plastic
surgery could do. Paytrik Morland, who had known Dunnan and had seen
Makann on screen, ought to have known that too, but he either didn't
think of it or didn't want to weaken a case he had completely accepted.

"As far as I can find out, nobody even heard of Makann till about
five years ago. That would be about the time Dunnan would have
arrived on Marduk," he said.

By this time, the big room in which they were meeting had become a
babel of voices, everybody trying to convince everybody else that
they'd known it all along. Then the Back-To-Gram party received its
_coup-de-grace_; Lothar Ffayle, to whom the emissaries of Duke Joris
had looked for their strongest support, went over.

"You people want us to abandon a planet we've built up from nothing,
and all the time and money we've invested in it, to go back to Gram
and pull your chestnuts out of the fire? Gehenna with you! We're
staying here and defending our own planet. If you're smart, you'll
stay here with us."

* * * * *

The Bigglersport delegation was still on Tanith, trying to recruit
mercenaries from the King of Tradetown and dickering with a
Gilgamesher to transport them to Gram, when the big lie turned
into something like the truth.

The observation post on the Moon of Tanith picked up an emergence at
twenty light-minutes due north of the planet. Half an hour later,
there was another one at five light-minutes; a very small one, and
then a third at two light-seconds, and this was detectable by radar
and microray as a ship's pinnace. He wondered if something had
happened on Amaterasu or Beowulf; somebody like Gratham or the
Everrards might have decided to take advantage of the defensive
mobilization on Tanith. Then they switched the call from the pinnace
over to his screen, and Prince Simon Bentrik was looking out of it.

"I'm glad to see you! Your wife and son are here, worried about you,
but safe and well." He turned to shout to somebody to find young
Count Steven of Ravary and tell him to tell his mother. "How are you?"

"I had a broken leg when I left Moonbase, but that's mended on the
way," Bentrik said. "I have little Princess Myrna aboard with me.
For all I know, she's Queen of Marduk, now." He gulped slightly.
"Prince Trask, we've come as beggars. We're begging help for
our planet."

"You've come as honored guests, and you'll get all the help we can
give you."