mbed clumsily into his own. They moved off to return to
Don Loris' stronghold. Hoddan suffered.

* * * * *

They reached the castle before noon, and the sight of the Lady Fani
riding beside a worn-out Hoddan was productive of enthusiasm and loud
cheers. The loot displayed by the returned wayfarers increased the
rejoicing. There was envy among the men who had stayed behind. There
were respectfully admiring looks cast upon Hoddan. He had displayed, in
furnishing opportunities for plunder, the most-admired quality a leader
of feudal fighting men could show.

The Lady Fani beamed as she and Thal and Hoddan, all very dusty and
travel-stained, presented themselves to her father in the castle's great
hall.

"Here's your daughter, sir," said Hoddan, and yawned. "I hope there
won't be any further trouble with Ghek. We took his castle and looted it
a little and brought back some extra horses. Then we went to the
spaceport. I recharged my stun-pistols and put the landing grid out of
order for the time being. I brought away the communicator there." He
yawned again. "There's something highly improper going on, up just
beyond atmosphere. There are three ships up there in orbit, and they
were trying to call the spaceport in nonregulation fashion, and it's
possible that some of your neighbors would be interested. So I postponed
everything until I could get some sleep. It seemed to me that when
better skulduggeries are concocted, that Don Loris and his associates
ought to concoct them. And if you'll excuse me--"

He moved away, practically dead on his feet. If he had been accustomed
to horseback riding, he wouldn't have been so exhausted. But now he
yawned, and yawned, and Thal took him to a room quite different from the
guest-room-dungeon to which he'd been taken the night before. He noted
that the door, this time, opened inward. He braced chairs against it to
make sure that nobody could open it from without. He lay down and slept
heavily.

He was waked by loud poundings. He roused himself enough to say
sleepily:

"Whaddyawant?"

"The lights in the sky!" cried Fani's voice outside the door. "The ones
you say are spaceships! It's sunset again, and I just saw them. But
there aren't three, now. Now there are nine!"

"All right," said Hoddan. He lay down his head again and thrust it into
his pillow. Then he was suddenly very wide awake indeed. He sat up with
a start.

Nine spaceships? That wasn'