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I stood erect, and my greater height enabled me to see over the heads of the people easily. Miela laid her hand on my arm. "One of them I know. His name is Baar, a bad character. He has caused much trouble in the past." She then told me hastily that she and Anina would fly up and seek him out. Mercer and I were to follow them through the crowd on the ground.
Nothing loath, Webfoot claimed the penalty from the crowd perched in the trees, in some instances not without the aid of his six-shooter, and the jack was then turned loose in the palisade. "He's eatin' grass," piped up old Grease-top Jamie. "Say, I can see twenty jackasses eatin', down to the boardin' house at Blue Tent any day, an' I don't have to pay no dollar, neither. Turn out ye'r baar!"
Mercer could hear their words, but of course understood nothing he heard. "What do they say, Anina?" he whispered impatiently after a moment. "Baar is here with two or three of his men. He talks with Tao's men. They talk about men from Twilight Country. Waiting for them now. Speak of storm. Worried because men do not come. Waiting for light-ray." "They'll have a long wait," Mercer chuckled.
That was all she knew, except that this house was the headquarters of Tao's emissaries, who, it appeared, were now allied with Baar and his party. Anina whispered all this to Mercer when her mother had finished. "Let's get out of here," said Mercer.
The man who had pushed me to the seat bent down and struck me across the cheek with the flat of his hand. His grinning, malevolent face was only a few inches from mine. I saw that it was Baar! There seemed to be five of our captors, all of them as evil-looking men as I think I have ever seen. They rummaged about the room, evidently in search for weapons they thought I might have secreted.
Baar and his men had started some twenty minutes before us, I figured, and we must reach the castle before them. I made extraordinary progress over the level country. But I could not run uphill for long, and soon had to slow down to a walk. Miela kept closer to me now. We approached the castle grounds. "Where will the guards be, Miela? We must avoid them if we can. They might try to stop us."
It seemed a mad plan at best; and now that it had gone wrong, I wondered what Baar would attempt to do. Evidently he and his henchmen had all left the castle, fearing the light-ray, which Miela pretended I held. They were outside now, among the mob, I assumed. Would the mob attempt to enter? Miela hurried away to send every one inside the building to its roof.
A man was standing stock still in its center. It was Baar. He flung his knife at me as I appeared, but it went wild. Two other men were coming toward me from opposite sides of the room. I swung the bludgeon about me viciously, keeping them away. Suddenly Baar shouted a command, and before I could reach any one of them they had scurried away like rats.
"There are the guards a few. But Baar has promised them great wealth, and they will stand aside and let him pass. So it is arranged." The arrival of several other men interrupted our whispered conversation. Baar, his meal over, consulted with them hurriedly. He then instructed his wife to watch us, and after a moment they all left the house.
Twenty or thirty men faced him, most of them about the table. Several had started hastily to their feet; two or three chairs were overturned. The man who had been looking down into the opening darted back as Mercer came up, and shouted again. Mercer saw it was Baar. The men around the table were now all on their feet. One of them picked up a huge metal goblet and flung it at Mercer's head.
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