oth and featureless.

Once more he scratched away the paint with careful precision, until it
was cleared around the edges. Here the solid metal gave way to solder
and he picked at this until he discovered that a piece of sheet metal
had been soldered at the edges and fastened to the bedplate. "Very
tricky, these Appsalanoj," he chortled and attacked the solder with a
knife blade. When one end was loose he slowly pulled the sheet of
metal away, making positive that there was nothing attached to it, nor
that it had been booby-trapped in any way. It came off easily enough
and clanged down into the pit. The revealed surface was smooth metal,
featureless and hard.

"Enough for one day," Jason said, climbing out of the pit and brushing
off his hands. It was almost dark. "We've accomplished enough for now
and I want to think a bit before I go ahead. So far luck has been on
our side, but I don't think it should be this easy. I hope you brought
your suitcase with you, Mikah, because you're moving in with me."

"Never! A sink of sin, depravity--"

Jason looked him coldly in the eye and with each word he spoke he
stabbed him in the chest with his finger to drive home the point. "You
are moving in with me because that is essential to our plans. And if
you stop referring to my moral weaknesses I'll stop talking about
yours. Now come on."

Living with Mikah Samon was trying, but barely possible. He made Ijale
and Jason go to the far wall and turn their backs and promise not to
look while he bathed behind a screen of skins. Jason did this but
exacted a small revenge by telling Ijale jokes so that they tittered
together and Mikah would be sure they were laughing at him. The screen
of skins remained after the bath, and was reinforced, and Mikah
retired behind it to sleep. Their food still consisted only of
_krenoj_ and Jason shuddered while he admitted that he was actually
growing used to them.

The following morning, under the frightened gaze of his guards, Jason
tackled the underside of the baseplate. He had been thinking about it
a good part of the night and he put his theories to the test at once.
By pressing hard on a knife he could make a good groove in the metal.
It was not as soft as the solder, but seemed to be some simple alloy
containing a good percentage of lead. What could it be concealing?
Probing carefully with the point of the knife he covered the bottom in
a regular pattern. The depth of the metal was uniformly d