knew you
wouldn't disappoint Auntie."

Hunter cried through clenched teeth, "I want Werner von Rausch. Where
is he?"

"Goodness, dear, how should I know? Werner never comes to my parties."

Hunter noticed the table, then, set for eight, its gleaming silver and
gold-rimmed china glowing in the soft candle light.

"Your Cousin Charlotte's already here, Karl." The woman gestured
gracefully toward the table. "And little Helmig. They know how
important it is to come on time."

He felt horror--and unconscious pity--as he realized the truth. Yet he
tried once more to get from her the information he wanted.

"Oh, bother with Werner," she answered, pouting. "If you must know, I
didn't even invite him. He's such a bore among young people."

She saw the blaster in Hunter's hand and pushed it aside gently, with
a grimace of disapproval. "I don't like you to have these toys, Karl.
Next thing, you'll be wanting to join the army."

Hunter flung himself out of that room, into a dark and musty hall.
Behind him he heard the woman still talking, as if he had never left
her. He blundered from one bleak room to another, rooms that were like
tombs smelling of dust and decay.

On the second floor he came upon a small, balding man who sat reading
at a desk in a room crammed with tottering stacks of old books. The
light came from an antiquated electric lamp. Obviously the house had
its own generating plant, independent of the power center Hunter had
destroyed.

Hunter jerked up his blaster again. "Werner von Rausch?"

"One moment," the man said. Ignoring Hunter, the man quietly finished
what he was reading, slipped a leather placemark into the book, and
put it on top of a stack beside the desk. The pile promptly collapsed
in a cloud of dust at Hunter's feet.

Max saw some of the title pages. The books were extraordinarily old,
some of them with a printing date a thousand years in the past. The
man pinched a pair of eye-glasses on his nose and studied Hunter
carefully.

"You're from the police, I presume?" he asked.

"If you are Werner von Rausch--"

"I'm Heinrich. I sent in the report. Though, I must say, you couldn't
have come at a more inconvenient time. I'm collating the spells
tonight. I have them all, right here at my fingertips. And when I'm
finished--" He seized the captain's jacket and his voice was suddenly
shrill. "--I'll have the power to summon up any demon from hell. Think
what that means! I'll be greater than F