?" He jerked his head toward a
door.

"Yeah, guess it is. Come on, young fella, that funny stuff, it don't
work so good with old Jake, see? So let's you and me take a nice little
ride. What ya say?"

The khroal remained steadily pointed at its target.

Don hesitated. This was about as far from good as it could get, he
thought. Now who was this? Where did he fit into the situation?

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Oh, I don't mind telling you that. Name's Jake. Jake Gorham. But come
on. Let's get on our way. We got a nice, long ride, you and me, see?"
Gorham waved his weapon again.

"Come on," he repeated. "Nice young fella like you, he don't wanna get
all scattered around. Shame to mess up this nice pretty little garden,
you know?"

Don hesitated. Of course, he might be able to dive into the pool again.
But the khroal could kick out a cone several feet deep. There was no
escape that way. No way out of the pool, anyway--except through this
garden. He moved in the indicated direction.

* * * * *

Gorham herded him to the courtyard and closed the door. The house
lights filtered through curtains, to show the outline of a flier in the
middle of the court. Gorham urged him toward it.

"All right, young fella," he said, "just stand real quiet for a minute.
I'll get this thing unlocked and start them synchronizer things." He
reached toward the door, then paused.

"Yeah, I been kinda wondering about you," he added conversationally.
"See, I got a smart young fella down there in Oreladar. He's got people
pretty well trained down there by now. Chap named Stern. You hear of
him, maybe?" He chuckled.

"Kinda set him up in business here a few years back, and he's doing
pretty well. Old Jake just hasta hang around--kinda look after things
now and then, this boy shouldn't get in too much trouble, see?" He
cleared his throat.

"See, this Danny, he ain't got too much in the brains department. And
he don't do so good when people get violent. Might say he sorta scares
easy sometimes. Now you, I'd say you were a little different, see? Ya
know, I just might be able to use a real smart young fella like you."
He flipped the khroal up and down negligently.

"Now, don't go making up no mind yet. Like I say, we got time. We have
a nice, long talk on the way to Oreladar. Maybe we work something out,
eh? You know, old Jake, he ain't such a bad guy. You ask Danny. He'll
tell you. We could get a