ized Old Federation planets no
Sword-Worlder had ever seen. Zaspar Makann wasn't even that. And
so much had happened on Gram since the murder of Elaine Karvall and
the piracy of the _Enterprise_ that they had completely forgotten
Andray Dunnan. That put them at a disadvantage. All the people whom
they were trying to convince, the half-hundred members of the new
nobility of Tanith, spoke a language they didn't understand. They
didn't even understand the proposition, and couldn't argue against it.

Paytrik Morland, who was Gram-born and had been speaking for
a return in force to fight against Omfray of Glaspyth and his
supporters, defected from them at once. He had been on Marduk and
knew who Zaspar Makann was; he had made friends with the Royal Navy
officers, and had been shocked to hear that they were now enemies.
Manfred Ravallo and Boake Valkanhayn, among the more articulate of
the Raid-Xochitl-Now party, snatched up the idea and seemed
convinced that they'd thought of it themselves all along. Valkanhayn
had been on Gimli and talked to Mardukan naval officers; Ravallo had
brought Princess Bentrik to Tanith and heard her stories on the
voyage. They began adducing arguments in support of Trask's thesis.
Of course Dunnan and Makann were in collusion. Who tipped Dunnan off
that the _Victrix_ would be on Audhumla? Makann; his spies in the
Navy tipped him. What about the _Honest Horris_; wasn't Makann
blocking any investigation about her? Why was Admiral Shefter
retired as soon as Makann got into power?

"Well, here; we don't know anything about this Zaspar Makann," the
confidential secretary and spokesman of the Duke of Bigglersport began.

"No, you don't," Otto Harkaman told him. "I suggest you keep quiet
and listen, till you find out a little about him."

"Why, I wouldn't be surprised if Dunnan was on Marduk all the time
we were hunting for him," Valkanhayn said.

Trask began to wonder. What would Hitler have done if he'd told one
of his big lies, and then found it turning into the truth? Maybe
Makann had been on Marduk.... No; he couldn't have hidden half a
dozen ships on a civilized planet. Not even at the bottom of an
ocean.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Alvyn Karffard was shouting, "if Andray
Dunnan _was_ Zaspar Makann. I know he doesn't look like Dunnan, we
all saw him on screen, but there's such a thing as plastic surgery."

That was making the big lie just a trifle too big. Zaspar Makann was
six inches shor