y he could conserve now. The
second step had been taken--the fact that he sat in a cell in prison was
proof of that.

[Illustration]

The third step--the all-important final step--was about to begin.

* * * * *

Georg Knupf was a tall man with skin the color and apparent texture of
good leather. He had a face like an eagle, and his eyes were ice-blue.
He moved his thin, strong hands gently back and forth on the table that
held his papers, inkstand and pen, and said in a voice like audible
sandpaper: "You wanted to see me."

"True," Jonas said pleasantly. Knupf was sitting behind the table. Jonas
had not been asked to sit; he remained standing, and he was reasonably
sure that his feet were going to hurt in a minute. He tried not to let
the thought disturb him.

The man's mind was like his office in the Town Hall: sparsely furnished,
almost austere, but with all the necessaries laid out for easy access.
Underneath the strength and iron of the mind Jonas caught the spark
glowing, and nearly smiled. In spite of the reports, in spite of logic,
there had been a chance the Brotherhood had guessed wrongly about this
man.

[Illustration]

Now that chance was gone, and the Brotherhood was right again.

"Not many ask to see me," Knupf said in the same voice. He went on
looking at his hands. There was bitterness in his mind, bitterness that
had changed to hate. "Their pleas tend to be exactly the opposite."

"I did not plead," Jonas pointed out. "It was necessary that I come to
see you."

The question was, he told himself, exactly what were the Inquisitor's
real beliefs? His public professions were well-known; Jonas searched and
found the answer. Knupf was an honest man.

That, of course, made matters simpler.

"Necessary?" Knupf said, looking up for the first time. His gaze stabbed
like a sword. He was uneasy, Jonas knew; with another mind probing his,
he could not help but be uneasy. But he could not find a cause; it would
never occur to him. And he controlled his feelings superbly.

"You believe that I am a wizard," Jonas said.

Knupf waited a bare second, and then nodded.

"I can do many things," Jonas went on. "It was necessary that I bring
these to your attention--and prove to you that they are not wizardry, or
magic."

"Many have told me," Knupf muttered, "that their feats were natural. It
is a common defense."

"So I have heard," Jonas said easily. "But I shall prove wh