le of hundred slaves, always chained in batches of
ten. Nebu-hin-Abenoz pays for them, makes arrangements for the next
meeting, and the next morning he and his party start marching the
slaves to Careba. I might add that, until now, these slaves have been
sold to the mines east of Careba; these are the first that have gotten
into the coastal country."

"That's why this hasn't come to light before, then. The conveyer comes
in every ten days, at about the same place?"

"Yes. I've been thinking of a way we might trap them," Skordran Kirv
said. "I'll need more men, and equipment."

"Order them from Regional or General Reserve." Vall told him. "This
thing's going to have overtop priority till it's cleared up."

He was mentally cursing Vulthor Tharn's procedure-bound timidity as
the conveyer flickered and solidified around them and the overhead red
light turned green.

* * * * *

They emerged into the interior of a long shed, adobe-walled and
thatch-roofed, with small barred windows set high above the earth
floor. It was cool and shadowy, and the air was heavy with the
fragrance of citrus fruits. There were bins along the walls, some
partly full of oranges, and piles of wicker baskets. Another conveyer
dome stood beside the one in which they had arrived; two men in white
cloaks and riding boots sat on the edge of one of the bins, smoking
and talking.

Skordran Kirv introduced them--Gathon Dard and Krador Arv, special
detectives--and asked if anything new had come up. Krador Arv shook
his head.

"We still have about forty to go," he said. "Nothing new in their
stories; still the same two time lines."

[Illustration:]

"These people," Skordran Kirv explained, "were all peons on the estate
of a Kharanda noble just above the big bend of the Ganges. The Croutha
hit their master's estate about a ten-days ago, elapsed time. In
telling about their capture, most of them say that their master's wife
killed herself with a dagger after the Croutha killed her husband,
but about one out of ten say that she was kidnaped by the Croutha. Two
different time lines, of course. The ones who tell the suicide story
saw no firearms among the Croutha; the ones who tell the kidnap story
say that they all had some kind of muskets and pistols. We're making
synthetic summaries of the two stories."

"We're having trouble with the locals about all these strangers coming
in," Gathon Dard added. "They're getting c