" 'Question: Yea, yea, Goodman Ghirch; but let us return to your visit to the other camp.'
" 'Answer: Aye, sir; begging your pardon. We were halfway to the other camp, and Foltus had been cursing under his breath. Then he pulled to a halt, shouting: "Bákh damn them all to Hishkah!" When I asked what betid, he said he had forgotten to lead a third aya with us, needed to carry another person back to our own camp. He would have turned back, but I told him that my own aya could carry double. She is a big, strong beast, with a white blaze—'
" 'Question: Stick to the course, pray.'
" 'Answer: Oh, aye, sir. We arrived at the other camp, and Foltus lighted down from his beast and began shouting at Reef, who shouted back. I know not what they said, since they spake some off-world gibberish. The next I knew, they were fighting. Foltus with his sword and Reef with a pick.'
" 'Question: Which attacked the other? Which struck the first blow?'
" 'Answer: I could not say, sir. Meseemed both were set upon doing the other to death.'
" 'Question: What was the upshot?'
" 'Answer: Doctor Maghou, yonder, ran up behind Foltus and knocked him senseless with a strange kind of hammer.'
" 'Question: What then?'
" 'Answer: My orders being to succor Foltus in difficulties, I roped his body to his saddle and led the aya back to our camp. By the time we reached it, Foltus had begun to recover.'
" 'Question: What befell next at the Foltus camp?'
" 'Answer: I know not, sir. When we reached the camp, I found another of Squire Sainian's men with a message, that I should leave the camp and join the roundup, since one of the herders had been hurt.'
" 'Question: Thank you, Goodman Ghirch.'
"As ye have heard," said the defender, "Ghirch's account corroborates that of Reef and Maghou. Doctor Foltus!"
"Yes?"
"What have ye to say to this testimony?"
"That it is a pack of lies," said Foltz. "My colleagues across the room must have suborned Ghirch with money or promises of more lucrative employment."
Asked the same question, Reith and Marot said that Ghirch's testimony was quite correct as far as it went. "The next deposition!" said the prosecutor.
This was an interview with the camp worker Doukh. It settled nothing, because Doukh, obviously frightened, answered "Aye" to every question, even if this answer contradicted a previous one.
"Have you any more depositions?" asked the Dasht.
"Nay, my lord," said the prosecutor. "We endeavored to obtain statements from Foltus's servants about such matters as the relations betwixt him and his secretary, and his alleged beating of her. But those men have all gone into hiding."
Kharob asked: "How could they, when they were brought to Jeshang along of Doctor Foltus?"
"The five brought hither were enlarged by order of Her Holiness, as having nought of interest to say. There were two or three others; but they, too, have disappeared."
The Dasht glared at the High Priestess, who glared back. She said: "Bákh told me that nought was to be gained by holding them."
After further haggling over technicalities, the prosecutor said: "I have no more questions, my lords."
"And ye, Sir Defender?"
"None more, Your Altitude."
"Very well. The Terrans shall be given refreshment whilst my colleagues and I withdraw to consider our verdict."
A Krishnan hour later, when all had returned to the hearing room, the Dasht said:
"The Chief Justicer will announce the verdict. Rise, Ertsuma!"
The old lawyer adjusted his eyeglasses and spoke from a sheet of notes: "Whereas the Terran clept Warren Foltus hath been involved in a combat causing the deaths of five of His Altitude's subjects and the wounding of divers others, he hath rendered himself liable to punishment. In view, however, of his sincere conversion to the Truth of Bákh and his help in bringing to book the other two Ertsuma, it hath been decided to limit his penalty to summary expulsion from the Dashtate.
"Whereas Masters Reef and Maghou have been shown to be stubborn and fanatical adherents of the false theory of evolution, they shall be released to the custody of the religious authorities, for such disposal as seems best suited to promote the Truth of Bákh
"Which," said the High Priestess with a crooked smile, "shall be the regular penalty for contumacious heresy, as soon as I can sign the papers. Orders have already gone out, and the Cauldron of Repentance will be ready on the morrow. Take them away!"
In the late afternoon, Reith and Marot were returned to their cell. Their depression was not lightened by the sardonic grin that Foltz flashed at them in the corridor. For hours they sat, stirring betimes to mutter an occasional comment:
"Aristide, wouldn't it have been better to pretend wholehearted conversion? Foltz got away with it."
"I do not think so. It would perhaps have cast doubt on his sincerity; but while that might have put him into the kettle, it would not deliver us."
Reith held his head in his hands. "Remember my saying we'd be safe once we were on the train? How stupid can anyone be?"
"Do not blame yourself, my friend. If the mouse has six holes from which to issue, not even the most gifted cat can foresee which one will be employed. Should we perhaps have fought the Bákhites when they attacked the train, instead of tamely yielding?"
"I thought of that; but I figured the odds were hopeless. I have no illusion that I can cut my way through a hundred foes and escape—and on foot at that."
They scarcely touched their dinners. Darkness had fallen, and a Temple guard was lighting the lamps in the corridor outside, when the cell door was unlocked and two figures came in. The first was a tall person in a hooded cloak; the second, a burly Krishnan carrying a broad-bladed, two-handed sword.
Reith pulled himself together. 'To whom do we owe the honor of this visit?"
The hooded figure cast off the cloak and stood revealed as Dasht Kharob bad-Kavir. "Good even, gentlemen."
"Good even to Your Altitude. What now?" .
The Dasht said: "Know that I did not concur with this afternoon's voting. To me, your stories were more plausible than those of Doctor Foltus, especially with the corroboration of the shaihan-hand. I would have merely exiled you along with Foltus, but I was outvoted. Her Holiness is taken with Foltus, who hath beguiled her with flatteries and obsequious blandishments. She would have let him off scot-free; but I insisted on my right to expel him.
"She holds that to cast doubt upon the literal veracity of a single syllable of the Book of Bákh puts the whole edifice at hazard. Therefore she demands your bodies, to serve as an example to other temerarious Terrans, who might come hither to spread subversive ideas."
"If you're the Dasht," said Reith, "haven't you the power to pardon us, or at least commute the sentence?"
"Not in matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the extent of that jurisdiction is what the High Priestess saith it be. You know not our local politics."
"Why did the Chief Justicer take her side?"
"He fears an accusation of heresy, should he display unwonted independence of mind. Since you'll not survive to tattle, I can be frank. Lazdai and I have been opposed in many things; but such is her hold on the people that I dare not come out openly against her, lest a mob, incited by her minions, string me up in the main square. I can trust but few, such as Jám here." He nodded at the swordsman. "He's here, first to make sure you try not something desperate, like seizing me as hostage; and second to effect the favor I offer, an you accept."
"And that is?"
"In lieu of the official penalty, Jam will give you a quick quietus. All you need do is assent, kneel down, and bow your heads—and kchunk! 'tis all over in a trice. Lazdai will be passing wroth, but I can ride out that storm."