friendly terms with the gods.

"May Safar's hand work with the hands of your gods for it," he said,
making what, to a non-Calera, would have been an extremely ribald
sign.

"The gods watch over us," Atarazola said, lifting his head. "They are
near us even now; they have spoken words of comfort in my ear."'

Ganadara nodded. The gods to whom his partner prayed were a couple of
paratime policemen, crouching over a radio a mile or so down the
ridge.

"My brother," he told Coru-hin-Irigod, "is much favored by our gods.
Many people come to him to pray for them."

"Yes. So you told me, now that I think on it." That detail had been
included in the pseudo-memories he had been given under hypnosis. "I
serve Safar, as do all Caleras, but I have heard that the Jeserus'
gods are good gods, dealing honestly with their servants."

* * * * *

An hour later, under the walls of the town, Coru-hin-Irigod drew one
of his pistols and fired all four barrels in rapid succession into the
air, shouting, "Open! Open for Coru-hin-Irigod, and for the Jeseru
traders, Ganadara and Atarazola, who are with him!"

A head, black-bearded and sun-bonneted, appeared between the brick
merlons of the wall above the gate, shouted down a welcome, and then
turned away to bawl orders. The gate slid aside, and, after the
caravan had passed through, naked slaves pushed the massive thing shut
again. Although they were familiar with the interior of the town, from
photographs taken with boomerang-balls--automatic-return transposition
spheres like message-balls--they looked around curiously. The central
square was thronged--Caleras in striped robes, people from the south
and east in baggy trousers and embroidered shirts, mountaineers in
deerskins. A slave market was in progress, and some hundred-odd items
of human merchandise were assembled in little groups, guarded by their
owners and inspected by prospective buyers. They seemed to be all
natives of that geographic and paratemporal area.

"Don't even look at those," Coru-hin-Irigod advised. "They are but
culls; the market is almost over. We'll go to the house of
Nebu-hin-Abenoz, where all the considerable men gather, and you will
find those who will be able to trade slaves worthy of the goods you
have with you. Meanwhile, let my people take your horses and packs to
my house; you shall be my guests while you stay in Careba."

It was perfectly safe to trust Coru-hin-Irigod.