"This is wild country," Zarfo warned them. "Dangerous beasts are occasionally seen, so be ready with your weapons."

The trail was steep, the terrain indeed wild. On several occasions they sighted Kar Yan, subtle gray beasts slinking through the rocks, sometimes erect on two legs, sometimes dropping to all six. Another time they encountered a tiger-headed reptile gorging upon a carcass, and were able to pass unmolested.

On the third day after leaving Hamil Zut, the travelers entered Lokhara, a great upland plain; and in the mid-afternoon Smargash appeared ahead. Zarfo now told Reith: "It occurs to me, as it must have to you, that yours is a very ticklish venture."

"Agreed."

"Folk here are not indifferent to the Wankh, and a stranger might easily talk to the wrong people."

So.

"It might be better for me to select the personnel."

"Certainly. But leave the question of payment to me."

"As you wish," growled Zarfo.

The countryside was now a prosperous well-watered land, populated by peasant farms. The men, like Zarfo, were tattooed or dyed black, with a mane of white hair. The skins of the women, in contradistinction, were chalky white, and their hair was black. Urchins showed white or black hair according to their sex, but their skins were uniformly the color of the dirt in which they played.

A road ran on a riverbank, under majestic old keels. To either side were small bungalows, each in its bower of vines and shrubs. Zarfo sighed with vast feeling. "Observe me, the transient worker returning to his home. But where is my fortune? How may I buy my cottage by the river? Poverty has forced me to strange ways; I am thrown in with a stone-hearted zealot, who takes his joy thwarting the hopes of a kind old man!"

Reith paid no heed, and presently they entered Smargash.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

REITH SAT IN the parlor of the squat cylindrical cottage he had rented, overlooking the Smargash common, where the young folk spent much time dancing.

Across from him, in wicker chairs, sat five white-haired men of Smargash, a group screened from the twenty Zarfo originally had approached. The time was middle afternoon; out on the common, dancers skipped and kicked to music of concertina, bells and drums.

Reith explained as much of his program as he dared: not a great deal. "You men are here because you can help me in a certain venture. Zarfo Detwiler has informed you that a large sum of money is involved; this is true, even if we fail. If we succeed, and I believe the chances are favorable, you will earn wealth sufficient to satisfy any of you. There is danger, as might be expected, but we shall hold it to a minimum. If anyone does not care to consider such a venture, now is the time to leave."

The oldest of the group, one Jag Jaganig, an expert in the overhaul and installation of control systems, said, "So far we can't say yes or no. None of us would refuse to drag home a sack of sequins, but neither would we care to challenge impossibility for a chancy bice."

"You want more information?" Reith looked from face to face. "This is natural enough. But I don't want to take the merely curious into my confidence. If any of you are definitely not disposed for a dangerous but by no means desperate venture, please identify yourself now."

There was a slight stir of uneasiness, but no one spoke out.

Reith waited a moment. "Very well; you must bind yourselves to secrecy."

The group bound themselves by awful Lokhar oaths. Zarfo, plucking a hair from each head, twisted a fiber which he set alight. Each inhaled the smoke. "So we are bound, one to all; if one proves false, the others as one will strike him down."

Reith, impressed by the ritual, had no more qualms about speaking to the point.

"I know the exact location of a source of wealth, at a place not on the planet Tschai. We need a spaceship and a crew to operate it. I propose to commandeer a spaceship from the Ao Hidis field; you men shall be the crew. To demonstrate my sanity and good faith, I will pay to each man on the day of departure five thousand sequins. If we try but fail, each man receives another five thousand sequins."

"Each surviving man," grumbled Jag Jaganig.

Reith went on: "If we succeed, ten thousand sequins will seem like ten bice.

Essentially, this is the scope of the venture."

The Lokhars shuffled dubiously in their chairs. Jag Jaganig spoke. "We obviously have the basis for an adequate crew here, at least for a Zeno, or a Kud, or even one of the small Kadants. But it is no small matter to so affront the Wankh."

"Or worse, the Wankhmen," muttered Zorofim.

"As I recall," mused Thadzei, "no great vigilance prevailed. The scheme, while startling, seems feasible-provided that the ship we board is in operative condition."

"Aha!" exclaimed Belje. "That' provided that' is the key to the entire exploit!"

Zarfo jeered: "Naturally there is risk. Do you expect money for nothing?"

"I can hope."

Jag Jaganig inquired: "Assume that the ship is ours. Is further risk entailed?"

"None."

"Who will navigate?"

"I will."

"In what form is this 'wealth'?" demanded Zorofim. "Gems? Sequins? Precious metal? Antiques? Essences?"

"I don't care to go any further into detail, except to guarantee that you will not be disappointed."

The discussion proceeded, with every aspect of the venture subjected to attack and analysis. Alternative proposals were considered, argued, rejected. No one seemed to regard the risk as overwhelming, nor did anyone doubt the group's ability to handle the ship. But none evinced enthusiasm. Jag Jaganig put the situation into focus. "We are puzzled," he told Reith. "We do not understand your purposes. We are skeptical of boundless treasures."

Zarfo said, "Here I must speak. Adam Reith has his faults which I won't deny. He is stubborn and unwieldy; he is crafty as a zut; he is ruthless when opposed.

But he is a man of his word. If he declares a treasure to exist for our taking, that aspect of the matter is closed."

After a moment Belje muttered: "Desperate, desperate! Who wants to learn the truth of the black boxes?"

"Desperate, no," countered Thadzei. "Risky, yes, and may demons runoff with the black boxes!"

"I'll take the chance," said Zorofim.

"I as well," said jag Jaganig. "Who lives forever?"

Belje finally capitulated and declared himself committed. "When shall we leave?"

"As soon as possible," said Reith. "The longer I wait, the more nervous I get."

"And more the chance of someone else running off with our treasure, hey?" exclaimed Zarfo. "That would be a sad case!"

"Give us three days to arrange our affairs," said Jag Jaganig.

"And what of the five thousand sequins?" demanded Thadzei. "Why not distribute the money now, so that we may have the use of it?"

Reith hesitated no longer than a tenth of a second. "Since you must trust me, I must trust you." He paid to each of the marveling Lokhars fifty purple sequins, worth a hundred white sequins each.

"Excellent!" declared jag Jaganig. "Remember all! Utter discretion! Spies are everywhere. In particular I distrust that peculiar stranger at the inn who dresses like a Yao."

"What?" cried Reith. "A young man, black-haired, very elegant.

"The person precisely. He stares out over the dancing field with never a word to say."

Reith, Zarfo, Anacho and Traz went to the inn. In the dim taproom sat Helsse, long legs in tight black twill breeches stretched under the heavy table.

Brooding, he looked straight ahead and out the doorway to where black-skinned white-haired boys and white-skinned blackhaired girls skipped and caracoled in the tawny sunlight.