Hoddan was now clothed. He jerked on the door to open it.

The door was locked. He raged. He flung himself against it and it barely quivered. It was barred on the outside. He swore in highly indecorous terms, and tore his bedstead apart to get a battering-ram.

The fighting reached a climax. He heard a girl scream, and without question knew that it was Lady Fani, and equally without question knew that he would fight to keep any girl from being abducted by a man she didn’t want to marry. He swung the log which was the corner-post of his bed. Something cracked. He swung again.

The sound of battle changed to that of a running fight. The objective of the raiders had been reached. Having gotten what they came for — and it could only be Fani — they retreated swiftly, fighting only to cover their retreat. Hoddan swung his bed-leg with furious anger. He heard a flurry of yells ;and swordplay, and a fierce, desperate cry from Fani among them, and a plank in his guestroom-dungeon door gave way. He struck again. The running raiders poured past a corner some yards away. He battered and swore, and swore and battered as the tumult moved, and’ he suddenly heard a scurrying thunder of horses’ hoofs outside the castle. There were yells of derisive triumph and the pounding, rumbling sound of horses headed away in the night.

Still raging inarticulately, Hoddan crashed his small log at the door. He was not consciously concerned about the distress Don Loris might feel over the abduction of his daughter. But there is an instinct in most men against the forcing of a girl to marriage against her will. Hoddan battered at his door. Around him the castle began to hum like a hive of bees. Women cried out or exclaimed, and men shouted furiously to one another; off-duty fighting men came belatedly, looking for somebody “to fight, dragging weapons behind them and not knowing where to find enemies.

Bron Hoddan probably made as much noise as any four of them. Somebody brought a light somewhere near. It shone through the cracks in the splintered planks. He could see to aim. He smote savagely and the door came apart. It fell outward and he found himself in the corridor outside, being stared at by complete strangers.

“It’s the engineer,” someone explained to someone else, “I saw him when he rode in with Thai.”

“I want Thai,” said Hoddan coldly. “I want a dozen horses. I want men to ride them with me.” He pushed his way forward. “Which way to the stables?”

But then he went back and picked up his bag of stun-pistols. His air was purposeful and his manner furious. The retainers of Don Loris were in an extremely apologetic frame of mind. The Lady Fani had been carried off into the night by a raiding-party undoubtedly led by Lord Ghek. The defenders of the castle hadn’t prevented it. So there was no special reason to obey Hoddan, but there was every reason to seem to be doing something useful.

He found himself almost swept along by agitated retainers trying to look as if they were about a purposeful affair. They went down a long ramp, calling uneasily to each other. They eddied around a place where two men lay quite still on the floor. Then there were shouts of, “Thai! This way, Thai!” and Hoddan found himself in a small, stone-walled courtyard. It was filled with milling figures and many waving torches. And there was Thai, desperately pale and frightened. Behind him there was Don Loris, his eyes burning and his hands twitching, literally speechless from fury.

“Pick a dozen men, Thai!” commanded Hoddan. “Get ’em on horses! Get a horse for me, dammit! I’ll show ’em how to use the stun-pistols as we ride!”

Thai panted, shaking:

“They hamstrung most of the horses!”

“Get the ones that are left!” barked Hoddan. He suddenly raged at Don Loris. “Here’s another time stun-pistols get used on Darth! Object to this if you want to!”

Hoofbeats. Thai on a horse that shied and reared at the flames and confusion. Other horses, skittish and scared, with the smell of spilled blood in their nostrils, fighting the men who led them, their eyes rolling.

Thai called names as he looked about him. There was plenty of light. As he called a name, a man climbed on a horse. Some of the chosen men swaggered; some looked woefully unhappy. But with Don Loris glaring frenziedly upon them in the smoky glare, no man refused.

Hoddan climbed ungracefully upon the mount that four or five men held for him. Thai, with a fine sense of drama, seized a torch and waved it above his head. There was a vast creaking, and an unsuspected gate opened, and Thai rode out with a great clattering of hoofs and the others rode out after him.

There were lights everywhere about the castle, now. All along the battlements men had lighted the fire-baskets and lowered them partway down the walls, to disclose any attacking force which might have dishonorable intentions toward the stronghold. Others waved torches from the battlements. Streaming smoke, lighted by the flames, made weird patterns in the starlit night.

Thai swung his torch and pointed to the ground.

“They rode here!” he called to Hoddan. “They ride for Ghek’s castle!”

Hoddan said angrily:

“Put out that light! Do you want to advertise how few we are and what we’re doing? Here, ride close!”

Thai flung down the torch. There was confusion and crowding on Hoddan’s right-hand side. The smell of horseflesh was strong. Thai boomed:

“The pickings should be good, eh? Why do you want me?”

“You’ve got to learn something,” snapped Hoddan. “Here! This is a stun-pistol. It’s set for single-shot firing only. You hold it so, with your fingers along this rod. You point your finger at a man and pull this trigger. The pistol will buzz briefly. You let the trigger loose and point at another man and pull the trigger again. Understand? Don’t try to use it over ten yards. You’re no marksman! And don’t waste charges! Remember what to do?”

There on a galloping horse beside Hoddan in the darkness, Thai zestfully repeated his lesson.

“Show another man and send him to me for a pistol.” Hoddan commanded curtly. “I’ll be showing others.”

He turned to the man who rode too close to his left. Before he had fully instructed that man, another clamored for a weapon on his right. Hoddan checked his instructions and armed him.

The band of pursuing horsemen pounded through the dark night under strangely patterned stars. Hoddan held on to his saddle and barked out instructions to teach Darthians how to shoot. He felt very queer. He began to worry. With the lights of Don Loris” castle long vanished behind, he began to realize how very small his troop of pursuers happened to be. They’d be outnumbered many times by those they sought to pursue.

Thai had said something about horses being hamstrung. There must, then, have been two attacking parties. One swarmed into the stables and drew all defending retainers there. Then the other poured over a wall or in through a bribed-open sally port, and rushed for the Lady Fani’s apartments. The point was that the attackers had made sure there could be only a token pursuit. They knew they were many times stronger than any who might come after them. It would be absurd for them to flee.

Hoddan kicked his horse and got up to the front of the column of riders.

“Thai!” he snapped. “They’ll be idiots if they keep on running away, now they’re too far off to worry about men on foot. They’ll stop and wait for us… most of them anyhow. We’re riding into an ambush!”

“Good pickings, eh?” said Thai enthusiastically. “It would be disgrace not to fight them. The plunder—”

“Idiot!” yelped Hoddan. “These men know you. You know what I can do with stun-pistols! Tell them we’re riding into ambush. They’re to follow close behind us two! Tell them they’re not to shoot at anybody more than five yards off and not coming at them, and if any man stops to plunder I’ll kill him personally!”