I told him to fetch you."

I must have looked my surprise. "Well, of course, that was very nice of you," was the only banality I could think of at the moment.

"You see," she continued, "I saw you looking for a table, there was a vacant chair here, I was alone and lonely. You don't mind, do you?"

"I'm delighted. You were not the only lonely person in Amlot. Have you ordered?"

"No; the service here is execrable. They never have enough attendants, but the food is the best in town. But of course you have eaten here often--everyone eats here."

I didn't know just what position to take. Perhaps it would be better to admit that I was a stranger rather than pretend I was not and then reveal the fact by some egregious error that I would be certain to make in conversation with any person familiar with Amlot and the manners and customs of its people. I saw that she was appraising me closely. Perhaps it would be more correct to say inventorying me--my harness, my other apparel, my eyes. I caught her quizzical gaze upon my eyes several times. I determined to admit that I was a stranger when our attention was attracted to a slight commotion across the room. A squad of Zani Guards was questioning people at one of the tables. Their manner was officious and threatening. They acted like a bunch of gangsters.

"What's all that about?" I asked my companion.

"You don't know?"

"It is one of the many things I don't know," I admitted.

"About Amlot," she concluded for me. "They are looking for traitors and for Atorians. It goes on constantly in Amlot nowadays. It is strange you have never noticed it. Here they come now."

Sure enough, they were heading straight across the room for our table, and their leader seemed to have his eyes on me. I thought then that he was looking for me in particular. Later I learned that it is their custom to skip around a place, examining a few people in each. It is more for the moral effect on the citizens than for anything else. Of course they do make arrests, but that is largely a matter of the caprice of the leader unless a culprit has been pointed out by an informer.

The leader barged right up to me and stuck his face almost into mine. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Give an account of yourself."

"He is a friend of mine," said the woman across the table. "He is all right, kordogan."

The man looked at her, and then he wilted. "Of course, Toganja," he cried apologetically; then he marched his men away and out of the restaurant.

"Perhaps it was very well for me, in addition to having your company, that this was the only vacant chair in the restaurant; although I really had nothing to fear. It is just disconcerting for a stranger."

"Then I guessed correctly? You are a stranger?"

"Yes, Toganja; I was about to explain when the kordogan pounced on me."

"You have credentials though?"

"Credentials? Why, no."

"Then it is very well for you that I was here. You would certainly have been on your way to prison now and probably shot tomorrow--unless you have friends here."

"Only one," I said.

"And may I ask who that one is?"

"You." We both smiled.

"Tell me something about yourself," she said. "It doesn't seem possible that there is such an innocent abroad in Amlot today."

"I just reached the city this afternoon," I explained.