, won't you?"

Raud rose stiffly. "It is a wrong thing," he said, "to enter a man's
house and eat at his table, and then insult him."

Dranigo rose also, and Salvadro with him. "We had no mind to insult
you, Keeper, or offer you a bribe to betray your trust. We only offer
to help you fulfill it, so that the Crown will be safe after all of us
are dead. Well, we won't talk any more about it, now. We're going in
Yorn Nazvik's ship, tomorrow; he's trading in the country to the west,
but before he returns to the Warm Seas, he'll stop at Long Valley
Town, and we'll fly over to see you. In the meantime, think about
this; ask yourself if you would not be doing a better thing for the
Crown by selling it to us."

They wanted to leave the dishes and the new lumicon, and he permitted
it, to show that he was not offended by their offer to buy the Crown.
He knew that it was something very important to them, and he admitted,
grudgingly, that they could care for it better than he. At least, they
would not keep it in a hole under a hut in the wilderness, guarded
only by dogs. But they were not Keepers, and he was. To them, the
Crown would be but one of many important things; to him it was
everything. He could not imagine life without it.

He lay for a long time among his bed-robes, unable to sleep, thinking
of the Crown and the visitors. Finally, to escape those thoughts, he
began planning tomorrow morning's hunt.

He would start out as soon as the snow stopped, and go down among the
scrub-pines; he would take Brave with him, and leave Bold on guard at
home. Brave was more obedient, and a better hunter. Bold would jump
for the deer that had been shot, but Brave always tried to catch or
turn the ones that were still running.

He needed meat badly, and he needed more deerskins, to make new
clothes. He was thinking of the new overshirt he meant to make as he
fell asleep....

It was past noon when he and Brave turned back toward Keeper's House.
The deer had gone farther than he had expected, but he had found them,
and killed four. The carcasses were cleaned and hung from trees, out
of reach of the foxes and the wolves, and he would take Brave back to
the house and leave him on guard, and return with Bold and the sled to
bring in the meat. He was thinking cheerfully of the fresh meat when
he came out onto the path from the village, a mile from Keeper's
House. Then he stopped short, looking at the tracks.

Three men--no, four--had c