Those within earshot guffawed at this witticism—ortij oolja means my love. Evidently they thought my apparel effeminate. I had to smile a little myself, as I walked over to Folar.
"The captain told me to report to you for duty," I said.
"What's your name?" he demanded, "and what do you think you can do aboard a ship like the Nojo Ganja?"
"My name is Sofal," I replied, "and I can do anything aboard ship or ashore that you can do, and do it better."
"Ho! Ho!" he pretended to laugh, "The Killer! Listen, brothers, here is The Killer, and he can do anything better than I can!"
"Let's see him kill you, then," cried a voice from behind him.
Folar wheeled about. "Who said that?" he demanded, but nobody answered.
Again a voice from behind him said, "You're afraid of him, you sailful of wind." It seemed to me that Folar was not popular. He completely lost his temper then, over which he appeared to have no control whatsoever; and whipped out his sword. Without giving me an opportunity to draw, he swung a vicious cut at me that would have decapitated me had it connected. I leaped back in time to avoid it; and before he could recover, I had drawn my own weapon; then we settled down to business, as the men formed a circle around us. As we measured one another's strength and skill in the first few moments of the encounter, I heard such remarks as, "Folar will cut the fool to pieces," "He hasn't a chance against Folar—I wish he had," and "Kill the mistal, fellow; we're for you."
Folar was no swordsman; he should have been a butcher. He swung terrific cuts that would have killed a gantor, could he have landed; but he couldn't land, and he telegraphed his every move. I knew what he was going to do before he started to do it. Every time he cut, he left himself wide open. I could have killed him any one of half a dozen times in the first three minutes of our duel, but I didn't wish to kill him. For all I knew he might be a favorite of the captain, and I had already done enough to antagonize that worthy. For the right moment to do the thing I wanted to do, I had to bide my time. He rushed me about here and there dodging his terrific swings until, at last, I got tired of it and pricked him in the shoulder. He bellowed like a bull at that; and, seizing his sword with both hands, came at me like a charging gantor. Then I pricked him again; and after that he went more warily, for I guess he had commenced to realize that I could kill him if I wished. Now he gave me the opportunity I had been awaiting, and in an instant I had disarmed him. As his weapon clattered to the deck, I stepped in, my point at his heart.
"Shall I kill him?" I asked.
"Yes!" rose in a thunderous chorus from the excited sailors. I dropped my point. "No, I shall not kill him this time," I said. "Now pick up your sword, Folar; and we'll call everything square. What do you say?"
He mumbled something as he stooped to retrieve his weapon; then he spoke to a one-eyed giant standing in the front row of spectators.
"This fellow will be in your watch, Nurn," he said. "See that he works." With that, he quit the deck.
The men gathered around me. "Why didn't you kill him?" asked one.
"And have the captain order me thrown overboard?" I demanded. "No. I can use my brains as well as my sword."
"Well," said Nurn, "there was at least a chance that he wouldn't have; but there is no chance that Folar won't stab you in the back the first chance he gets."
My duel with Folar had established me in the good graces of the crew; and when they found that I could speak the language of the sea and of the pirate ship, they accepted me as one of them. Nurn seemed to take a special fancy to me. I think it was because he hoped to inherit Folar's rank in the event the latter were killed, for several times he suggested that I pick another quarrel with Folar and kill him.
While talking with Nurn I asked him where the Nojo Ganja was bound.
"We're trying to find Vepaja," he said. "We've been trying to find it for a year."
"Why do you want to find it?" I asked.
"We're looking for a man the Thorists want," he said. "They've offered a million pandars to anyone who'll bring him to Kapdor alive."
"Are you Thorists?" I asked. The Thorists are members of a revolutionary political party that conquered the former empire of Vepaja which once spread over a considerable portion of the south temperate zone of Amtor. They are the bitter enemies of Mintep as well as of all countries that have not fallen into their hands.
"No," replied Nurn, "we are not Thorists; but we could use a million pandars of anybody's money."
"Who is this Vepajan they want so badly?" I asked. I assumed that it was Mintep.
"Oh, a fellow who killed one of their ongyans in Kapdor. His name is Carson ."
So! The long arm of Thora had reached out after me. I was already in the clutches of its fingers; but, happily for me, I was the only one who knew it. However, I realized that I must escape from the Nojo Ganja before it touched at any Thoran port.
"How do you know this Carson is in Vepaja?" I asked.
"We don't know," replied Nurn. "He escaped from Kapdor with the janjong of Vepaja. If they are alive, it is reasonable to believe they are in Vepaja; that, of course, is where he would have taken the janjong. We are going to search Vepaja first. If he isn't there, we'll go back to Noobol and search inland."
"I should think that would be quite a man-size job," I remarked.
"Yes, it will," he admitted, "but he should be an easy man to trace. Here and there inland someone must have seen him, and if anyone once saw this Carson they'd never forget him. He has yellow hair, and as far as anyone ever heard no one else in the world has yellow hair." I was grateful for my black wig. I hoped it was on securely.
"How are you going to get into the tree cities of Vepaja?" I asked. "They don't care much for strangers there, you know."
"What do you know about it?" he demanded.
"I've been there. I lived in Kooaad."
"You did? That's just where we expect to find Carson ."
"Then maybe I can help," I suggested.
"I'll tell the captain. No one aboard has ever been to Kooaad."
"But how do you expect to get into that city? You haven't told me that. It's going to be very difficult."
"They'll probably let one man go in to trade," he said. "You see, we've picked up a lot of jewels and ornaments off the ships we've taken. A man could go in with some of these and if he kept his ears and eyes open, he'd soon find out whether or not Carson was there. If he is, we'll have to find some way to entice him aboard the Nojo Ganja."
"That should be easy," I said.
Nurn shook his head. "I don't know about that," he said.
"It would be easy for me, knowing Kooaad as I do," I said. "You see I have friends there."
"Well, first we've got to find Vepaja," he remarked quite aptly.
"That's easy, too," I told him.
"How so?"
"Go tell the captain that I can pilot him to Vepaja," I said.
"You really can?"
"Well, I think I can. One never knows, what with the rotten maps we have."
"I'll go now and talk with the captain," he said. "You wait here and, say, keep a weather eye open for Folar—he's the stinkingest mistal of all the stinking mistals on Amtor. Just keep your back against something solid and your eyes open."
Chapter 20—To Kooaad
I watched Nurn as he crossed the deck and ascended the companionway leading to the captain's quarters. If the captain could be persuaded to trust me, here was such an opportunity to enter Kooaad as might never come to me again. I knew from the course that the Nojo Ganja was holding that she was paralleling the coast of Vepaja , but too far off shore for the land to be visible. At least I was confident that such was true. I really could not know it, as one could know nothing for certain about his position on one of these Amtorian seas unless he were in sight of land.