s ride.

There was a tense moment at the gate of the city. Heavily armed men
swarmed about. But produce trucks seemed to be exempt from close
scrutiny.

Case's companion traded jeers and coarse laughter with the gendarmerie,
and the truck rolled on down a wide avenue. The old feud between city
dweller and rustic, Case guessed. He noticed that the citizens of Kanato
wore clothing of high lustre and fine mesh.

They must be a scrappy people. Almost every male citizen carried a gun.
His own wouldn't be noticed, then.

Before a huge building, the truck stopped. The end of the journey. Case
hopped off, nodded his thanks for the lift and started walking.

* * * * *

Those three towers were at the edge of the city. Case made his way
through a crowded square, turned down a fern-lined street and headed for
them. From behind him a light breeze came, wafting a familiar aroma to
his nostrils.

Cigarette smoke! But until now he had seen nobody smoking. Acting on
impulse, Case drifted over to one side of the walk and bent as though to
tie his shoe.

Men walked past. Case straightened up, got a look at the backs of their
necks, and gasped. White--as white as his own skin. These were no
inhabitants of this world, but men of his own kind!

There were three of them. And now, as they finished lighting up, they
were talking plain Earth English with as little concern as though they
were strolling down the street of any Earth city.

"By the time we get back, there ought to be news," one of the men said.

"Yeah. That last one should have brought them around."

The second voice was another surprise. It stirred memories. Somewhere,
Case had heard that coarse tone before. He thought hard.

Sure, now he had it. Pete Engels, hotshot engineer cashiered out of the
space fleet and turned adventurer bum. The other two men Case didn't
know.

"I'd give plenty for a look at Davisson's face now," Engels was saying.
Davisson was commander of the moon base, to which Engels had been
attached.

"He's probably running around in circles," one of Engels' companions
laughed.

"Yeah. And don't think he ain't number one on my list when we take
over."

A sudden humming filled the air as they drew closer to the three towers,
and Case stopped listening to the conversation for a moment. The man
ahead had paused briefly, but they were now moving on.

Pedestrian traffic had fallen off, Case noticed. He and the three