other men. There was
approval in their eyes, but there was something else there, too--a
wariness, a concealed fear.

The condemned man turned suddenly and began shouting at the commander,
but before he could utter more than three syllables, a fist smashed him
down. The guards dragged him off.

"All right, men," said the commander carefully, "let's search the
village. There might be more gold about; I have a hunch that this isn't
all he hid. Let's see if we can find the rest of it." He sensed the
relief of tension as he spoke.

The commander was right. It was amazing how much gold one man had been
able to stash away.

IX

They couldn't stay long in any one village; they didn't have the time to
sit and relax any more than was necessary. Once they had reached the
northern marches of the native empire, it was to the commander's
advantage to keep his men moving. He didn't know for sure how good or
how rapid communications were among the various native provinces, but he
had to assume that they were top notch, allowing for the limitations of
a barbaric society.

The worst trouble they ran into on their way was not caused by the
native warriors, but by disease.

The route to the south was spotted by great strips of sandy barrenness,
torn by winds that swept the grains of sand into the troopers' eyes and
crept into the chinks of their armor. Underfoot, the sand made a
treacherous pathway; carriers and men alike found it heavy going.

The heat from the sun was intense; the brilliant beams from the primary
seemed to penetrate through the men's armor and through the insulation
underneath, and made the marching even harder.

Even so, in spite of the discomfort, the men were making good time until
the disease struck. And that stopped them in their tracks.

What the disease was or how it was spread is unknown and unknowable at
this late date. Virus or bacterium, amoeba or fungus--whatever it was,
it struck.

Symptoms: Lassitude, weariness, weakness, and pain.

Signs: Great, ulcerous, wartlike, blood-filled blisters that grew
rapidly over the body.

A man might go to sleep at night feeling reasonably tired, but not ill,
and wake up in the morning to find himself unable to rise, his muscles
too weak to lift him from his bed.

If the blisters broke, or were lanced, it was almost impossible to stop
the bleeding, and many died, not from the toxic effect of the disease
itself, but from simple loss of blood.

But