ere some way I can help you now?"

"Yes, there is," she said. "This man is my prisoner, and I'm going to
have to keep him in custody here for two days and a half, until help
arrives from Mars City. I'd like for you to arm a couple of dependable
men with heatguns and assign them to help me guard him."

Gren shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Miss Cara Nome, but none of the employees of the Chateau
Nectaris was employed for that sort of work, and I'm not going to ask
them to do it. What you should have is police help."

"As you know very well, there are no police nearer than Ophir," she
said in an exasperated tone. "Surely, you have some semi-official
officers employed in the chateau in case of trouble among the guests."

"I have a house detective, but his duties are to intervene only when
some crime has been committed against a guest or against the chateau.
You told me that you were seeking political rebels, and I assume that
that is your charge against Mr. Kensington. My house detective has no
authority to act in such cases, and I do not intend to get the chateau
mixed up in these affairs.

"I've co-operated with you to the extent of giving you information you
wanted, Miss Cara Nome, and I'll continue to co-operate insofar as I am
not asked to do something I have no authority to do. It occurs to me
that if you came here seeking rebels, you should have come equipped to
handle them if you found them."

"It occurs to me that you act very much as though you were in sympathy
with the rebel cause," retorted Maya angrily.

"My sympathies are not the government's affair, as long as I take no
illegal actions," said Gren. "Good evening, Miss Cara Nome."

Maya gazed after him furiously as he left the dining room. Dark, sitting
completely relaxed, smiled pleasantly at her.

"Please be assured," he said, "that I'm going to try to avoid injuring
you in any way when I escape your custody."

"I'm not worried, because you aren't going to escape," she said. "But I
appreciate the thought. You seem to be a very mild-mannered person,
for...."

She stopped.

"For a rebel?" he finished for her. "I really don't know what sort of
indoctrination you must have had, Maya--if I may call you Maya, and
there's no point in being formal under the circumstances. The students
at the barber college were all rebels, and the reports I received were
that you got along nicely with most of them."

"Yes, I did. I don't suppose it should surprise me t