ich were not unduly
lush. There were trees, and birds, and various other commonplace living
things whose forebears had been dumped on Darth some centuries before.
The ecological system had worked itself out strictly by hit-or-miss, but
the result was not unfamiliar. Save for the star-pattern overhead,
Hoddan could have believed himself on some parts of Zan, or some parts
of Walden, or very probably somewhere or other on Lohala or Kent or
Famagusta or any other occupied world between the Rims.

There was, though, the star-pattern. Hoddan tried to organize it in his
mind. He knew where the sun had set, which would be west. He asked the
latitude of the Darthian spaceport. Thal did not know it. He asked about
major geographical features--seas and continents and so on. Thal had no
ideas on the subject.

Hoddan fumed. He hadn't worried about such things on Walden. Of course,
on Walden he'd had one friend, Derec, and believed he had a sweetheart,
Nedda. There he was lonely and schemed to acquire the admiration of
others. He ignored the sky. Here on Darth he had no friends, but there
were a number of local citizens now doubtless recovered from
stun-pistol bolts and yearning to carve him up with large knives. He did
not feel lonely, but the instinct to know where he was, was again in
operation.

The ground was rocky and far from level. After two hours of riding on a
small and wiry horse with no built-in springs, Hoddan hurt in a great
many places he'd never known he owned. He and Thal rode in an
indeterminate direction with an irregular scarp of low mountains
silhouetted against the unfamiliar stars. A vagrant night-wind blew.
Thal had said it was a three-hour ride to Don Loris' castle. After
something over two of them, he said meditatively:

"I think that if you wish to give me a present I will take it and not
make a gift in return. You could give me," he added helpfully, "your
share of the plunder from our victims."

"Why?" demanded Hoddan. "Why should I give you a present?"

"If I accepted it," explained Thal, "and made no gift in return, I would
become your retainer. Then it would be my obligation as a Darthian
gentleman to ride beside you, advise, counsel, and fight in your
defense, and generally to uphold your dignity."

Hoddan suspected himself of blisters in places that had no dignity about
them. He said suspiciously:

"How about Don Loris? Aren't you his retainer?"

"Between the two of us," said Thal, "he's s