dare to insult her, drag her name in the dirt."

The hisses grew louder, more belligerent. Cries of "Butcher him!" and
"Scald his bowels!" rose from the courtroom. The judge banged for
silence, his eyes angry.

"Unless the defendant wishes to take up more of our precious time with
these ridiculous lies, the jury--"

"Wait! Your Honor, I request a short recess before I present my final
plea."

"Recess?"

"A few moments to collect my thoughts, to arrange my case."

The judge settled back with a disgusted snarl. "Do I have to?" he asked
Meyerhoff.

Meyerhoff nodded. The judge shrugged, pointing over his shoulder to the
anteroom. "You can go in there," he said.

Somehow, Zeckler managed to stumble from the witness stand, amid riotous
boos and hisses, and tottered into the anteroom.

* * * * *

Zeckler puffed hungrily on a cigarette, and looked up at Meyerhoff with
haunted eyes. "It--it doesn't look so good," he muttered.

Meyerhoff's eyes were worried, too. For some reason, he felt a surge of
pity and admiration for the haggard con-man. "It's worse than I'd
anticipated," he admitted glumly. "That was a good try, but you just
don't know enough about them and their Goddess." He sat down wearily. "I
don't see what you can do. They want your blood, and they're going to
have it. They just won't believe you, no matter _how_ big a lie you
tell."

Zeckler sat in silence for a moment. "This lying business," he said
finally, "exactly how does it work?"

"The biggest, most convincing liar wins. It's as simple as that. It
doesn't matter how outlandish a whopper you tell. Unless, of course,
they've made up their minds that you just naturally aren't as big a liar
as they are. And it looks like that's just what they've done. It
wouldn't make any difference to them _what_ you say--unless, somehow,
you could _make_ them believe it."

Zeckler frowned. "And how do they regard the--the biggest liar? I mean,
how do they feel toward him?"

Meyerhoff shifted uneasily. "It's hard to say. It's been my experience
that they respect him highly--maybe even fear him a little. After all,
the most convincing liar always wins in any transaction, so he gets more
land, more food, more power. Yes, I think the biggest liar could go
where he pleased without any interference."

Zeckler was on his feet, his eyes suddenly bright with excitement. "Wait
a minute," he said tensely. "To tell them a lie that they'd ha