"How do I know you're not a Zani spy?" he demanded.

I shrugged. "You don't," I said, "but I'm not. I don't even know what a Zani is."

"No, you couldn't be," he said presently. "With that yellow hair of yours I don't know what you could be--certainly not of our race."

"Well, how about answering some of my questions?" I inquired with a smile.

He smiled in return. "That's right. You wanted to know the disposition of the people of Korva to strangers and the name of the city by the sea. Well, before the Zanis seized the government, you would have been treated well in any Korvan city. But now it is different. Sanara, the city you asked about, would welcome you; it has not yet fallen under the domination of the Zanis. They are trying to reduce it now, and if it capitulates the last stronghold of freedom in Korva will have fallen."

"You are from Sanara?" I asked.

"Yes, at present. I had always lived in Amlot, the capital, until the Zanis came into power; then I couldn't go back, because I had been fighting them."

"I just flew over a big camp south of here," I said; "was that a Zani camp?"

"Yes. I'd give anything to see it. How many men have they?"

"I don't know; but it's a large camp, and more soldiers and supplies are coming in from the southwest."

"From Amlot," he said. "Oh, if I could but see that!"

"You can," I told him.

"How?" he demanded.

I pointed toward the ship. He looked just a little bit taken aback, but only for a second.

"All right," he said. "You will not regret your kindness. May I ask your name? Mine is Taman."

"And mine is Carson."

He looked at me curiously. "What country are you from? I have never before seen an Amtorian with yellow hair."

"It is a long story," I said. "Suffice it to say that I am not an Amtorian; I am from another world."

We walked toward the ship together, he, in the meantime, having returned his pistol to its holster. When we reached it, he saw Duare for the first time. I could just note a faint expression of surprise, which he hid admirably. He was evidently a man of refinement. I introduced them, and then showed him how to enter the rear cockpit and fasten his lifebelt.

Of course I couldn't see him when we took off, but he afterward told me that he believed his end had come. I flew him directly back to the Zani camp and along the highway toward Amlot.

"This is wonderful!" he exclaimed time and again. "I can see everything. I can even count the battalions and the guns and the wagons."

"Tell me when you've seen enough," I said.

"I think I've seen all that's necessary. Poor Sanara! How can it withstand such a horde? And I may not even be able to get back and make my report. The city must be surrounded by troops by now. I just barely got out an ax ago." An ax is equivalent to twenty days of Amtorian time, or slightly over twenty-two days, eleven hours of Earth time.

"The city is entirely surrounded," I told him. "I doubt that you could possibly pass through the lines even at night."

"Would you--" he hesitated.

"Would I what?" I asked, though I guessed what he wished to ask me.

"But no," he said; "it would be too much to ask of a stranger.