came aware that for a small space of time he had escaped the
net being woven by the beat of the drum, the drone of voices, the
nodding of heads. He moistened his lips. So that was how it worked! He
had heard Tau speak often enough about self-hypnotism under such
conditions, but this was the first time the meaning of it had been
clear.

Two men were shuffling out of nowhere, wearing nothing on their dark
bodies but calf-length kilts of tails, black tails with fluffy white
tips, which swayed uniformly in time to their pacing feet. Their heads
and shoulders were masked by beautifully cured and semi-mounted animal
heads displaying half-open jaws with double pairs of curved fangs. The
black-and-white striped fur, the sharply pointed ears, were neither
canine nor feline, but a weird combination of the two.

Dane gabbled two trading formulas under his breath and tried to think of
the relation of Samantine rock coinage to galactic credits. Only this
time his defenses did not work. From between the two shuffling dancers
padded something on four feet. The canine-feline creature was more than
just a head; it was a loose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet in
length, and the red eyes in the prick-eared head were those of a
confident killer. It walked without restraint, lazily, with arrogance,
its white-tufted tail swinging. And when it reached the mid-point of the
terrace, it flung up its head as if to challenge. But words issued from
between those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand but
which undoubtedly held meaning for the men nodding in time to the
hypnotic cadence of that da--da--da....

"Beautiful!" Tau spoke in honest admiration, his own eyes almost as
feral as those of the talking beast as he leaned forward, his fists on
his knees.

Now the animal was dancing also, its paws following the pace set by the
masked attendants. It must be a man in an animal skin. But Dane could
hardly believe that. The illusion was too perfect. His own hands went to
the knife sheath at his belt. Out of deference to local custom they had
left their stun rods in the palace, but a belt knife was an accepted
article of apparel. Dane slid the blade out surreptitiously, setting its
point against the palm of his hand and jabbing painfully. This was
another of Tau's answers for breaking a spell. But the white and black
creature continued to dance; there was no blurring of its body lines
into those of a human being.

It sang on in