The last statement was a guess, only, but Ghek’s retainer looked horrified. He bellowed. There was a subtle change in the bitterly hostile atmosphere. Men came angrily to help load the spare horses. Hoddan’s last three men came out of a corridor, wiping blood from various scratches and complaining plaintively that their pistols had shot empty and they’d had to defend themselves with knives.

Three minutes later the cavalcade rode out of the castle gate and away into the darkness. Hoddan had arrived here when Ghek was inside with Fani as his prisoner, when there were only a dozen men without and at least a hundred inside to defend the walls. And the castle was considered impregnable.

In a half-hour Hoddan’s followers had taken the castle, rescued Fani, looted it superficially, gotten fresh horses for themselves and spare ones for their plunder, and were headed away again. In only one respect were they worse off than when they arrived. Some stun-pistols were empty.

Hoddan searched the sky and pieced together the star pattern he’d noted before.

“Hold it!” he said sharply to Thai. “We don’t go back the same way we came! The gang that ambushed us will be stirring around again, and we haven’t got full stun-pistols now! We make a wide circle around those characters!”

“Why?” demanded Thai. “There are only so many passes. The only other one is three times as long. And it is disgraceful to avoid a fight.”

“Thai!” snapped an icy voice from beside Hoddan. “You have an order! Obey it!”

Even in the darkness, Hoddan could see Thai jump.

“Yes, my Lady Fani,” said Thai shakily. “But we go a long distance roundabout.”

The direction of motion through the night now changed. The long line of horses moved in deepest darkness, lessened only by the light of many stars. Even so, in time one’s eyes grew accustomed and it was a glamorous spectacle.

Presently they came to a narrow defile which opened out before them. And there, far, far away, they could see the sky as vaguely brighter. As they went on, indeed, a glory of red and golden colorings appeared at the horizon.

And out of that magnificence three bright lights suddenly darted. In strict V-formation, they flashed from the sunrise toward the west. They went overhead, more brilliant than the brightest stars, and when partway down to the horizon they suddenly winked out.

“What on Earth are they?” demanded Fani. “I never saw anything like that before!”

“They’re spaceships in orbit,” said Hoddan. He was as astounded as the girl, but for a different reason. “I thought they’d be landed by now!”

It changed everything. He could not see what the change amounted to, but the change was there.

“We’re going to the spaceport,” he told Thai curtly. “Well recharge our stun-pistols there. I thought those shins had landed. They haven’t. Now we’ll see if we can keep them aloft! How far to the landing-grid?”

“You insisted,” complained Thai, “that we not go back to Don Loris’ castle by the way we left it. There are on!” so many passes through the hills. The only other one is very long. We are only four miles—”

“Then we head there right now!” snapped Hoddan. “And we step up the speed!”

He barked commands to his followers. Thai, puzzled but in dread of acid comment from Fani, bustled up and down the line of men, insisting on a faster pace. Finally even the led horses, loaded with loot, managed to get up to a respectable ambling trot. The sunrise proceeded. Dew upon the straggly grass became visible. Separate drops appeared as gems upon the grass blades, and then began gradually to vanish as the sun’s disk showed itself. Then the angular metal framework of the landing-grid rose dark against the sunrise sky.

When they rode up to it, Hoddan reflected that it was the only really civilized structure on the planet. Architecturally it was surely the least pleasing. It had been built when Darth was first settled on, and when ideas of commerce and interstellar trade seemed reasonable. It was a half-mile high and built of massive metal beams. It loomed hugely overhead when the double file of shaggy horses trotted under its lower arches and across the grass-grown space within it. Hoddan headed purposefully for the control shed. There was no sign of movement anywhere. The steeply gabled roofs of the nearby town showed only the fluttering of tiny birds. No smoke rose from chimneys. Yet the slanting morning sunshine was bright.

As Hoddan actually reached the control shed, he saw a sleepy man in the act of putting a key in the door. He dismounted within feet of that man, who turned and blinked sleepily at him, and then immediately looked the reverse of cordial. It was the same man he’d stung with a stun-pistol the day before.

“I’ve come back,” said Hoddan, “for a few more kilowatts.” The red-headed man swore angrily.

“Hush!” said Hoddan gently. “The Lady Fani is with us.” The red-headed man jerked his head around and smiled. Thai glowered at him. Others of Don Loris’ retainers shifted their positions significantly, to make their oversized knives handier.

“We’ll come in,” said Hoddan. “Thai, collect the pistols and bring them inside.”

Fani swung lightly to the ground and followed him in. She looked curiously at the cables and instrument boards and switches inside. On one wall a red light pulsed, and went out, and pulsed again. The red-headed man looked at it.

“You’re being called,” said Hoddan. “Don’t answer it.”

The red-headed man scowled. Thai came in with an armful of stun-pistols in various stages of discharge. Hoddan briskly broke the butt of one of his own and presented it to the terminals he’d used the day before.

“He’s not to touch anything, Thai,” said Hoddan. To the red-headed man he observed, “I suspect that call’s been coming in all night. Something was in orbit at sundown. You closed up shop and went home early, eh?”

“Why not?” rasped the red-headed man. “There’s only one ship a month!”

“Sometimes,” said Hoddan, “there are specials. But I commend your negligence. It was probably good for me.”

He charged one pistol, and snapped its butt shut, and snapped open another, and charged it. There was no difficulty, of course. In minutes all the pistols he’d brought from Walden were ready for use again.

He tucked away as many as he could conveniently carry on his person. He handed the rest to Thai. He went competently to the pulsing red signal. He put headphones to his ears. He listened. His expression became extremely strange, as if he did not quite understand nor wholly believe what he heard.

“Odd,” he said mildly. He considered for a moment or two. Then lie rummaged around in the drawers of desks. He found wire clippers. He began to snip wires in half.

The red-headed man started forward automatically.

“Take care of him, Thai,” said Hoddan.

He cut the microwave receiver free of its wires and cables. He lifted it experimentally and opened part of its case to make sure the thermo battery that would power it in an emergency was there and in working order. It was.

“Put this on a horse, Thai,” commanded Hoddan. “We’re taking it up to Don Loris’.”

The red-headed man’s mouth dropped open. He said stridently:

“Hey! You can’t do that!” Hoddan glared at him. The redhead then said sourly: “All right, you can. I’m not trying to stop you with all those hardcases outside!”

“You can build another in a week,” said Hoddan kindly. “You must have spare parts.”

Thai carried the communicator outside. Hoddan opened a cabinet, threw switches, and painstakingly cut and snipped and snipped at a tangle of wires within.

“Just your instrumentation,” he explained. “You won’t use the grid until you’ve got this fixed, too. A few days of harder work than you’re used to. That’s all!”

He led the way out again, and on the way explained to Fani: