filled himself a cup, and looked complacently into its clear depths.The tap on the door broke his reverie, and he looked up, annoyed.
He stared impatiently at his castle steward as the man entered and madeobeisance.
"What now, Weron?" He set the cup down. "Must I be bothered with allyour petty problems?"
"This, Excellency, is an unusual problem. A sizable tribute payment hasdisappeared without trace. The empty bags were left, and the culprithas----"
"Enough!" The Baron waved a hand impatiently, then adjusted his goldencoronet to a more comfortable angle. For an instant, his fingers playedwith the ornamental bosses.
"Yes, yes, I see," he snapped. "You can spare me your mumbled details.This man is the officer of the guard?"
"Yes, Excellency." The steward motioned Gerda forward.
Bel Menstal looked sternly at his officer. "Where did you hide yourloot?" he demanded.
Gerda looked incredulously at his master. He had stolen nothing. As faras he knew, he had done nothing wrong. But he seemed to be condemned inadvance. Something was insistently pressing on his brain, demanding aconfession. He had nothing to confess, but the demanding pressureremained. He struggled against it, and it grew.
_Admit it. How did you do it? Where is the money?_
The pressure became a tearing force. Gerda swayed weakly.
"I don't know what happened," he insisted. "I told----"
The words stopped as the force became almost unbearably intense. Asudden, sharp pain tore at Gerda's throat, and blinding light seemed tostrike back of his eyes. Through the glare, he dimly saw the Baron raisea hand threateningly.
"You claim to have no idea at all how the money was taken, or which ofyour men may have been the thief? This is not a sensible attitude."
_You know something. You must know something. Tell it!_
Gerda shook his head miserably, entirely unable to speak. Somehow,nothing was clear. He remembered that something had gone wrong. Somehow,he had failed his duty. But how? The room was hazy. Snatches of his lasttour of duty rose to his consciousness, then were abruptly blottedout--gone. The faces of his clerk and of the men-at-arms came out of thehaze for an instant. Then, they, too, were gone.
The room seemed to spin and an irresistible force bore him to the floor.As he slowly was pressed downward, he wondered who he was--why he washere--what had happened. Then, the floor came at him with blinding speedand he ceased to wonder. The haze about him scintillated and becameimpenetrable darkness.
The Baron looked down at the crumpled form.
"Take this man away, Weron," he ordered. "He knew nothing." He strokedhis hair. "When he recovers, assign him to some unimportant duty in thecastle. Something, of course, that will demand little thought orspirit."
"And the others, Excellency?"
"Oh, bring them in, one at a time. One of them managed to make acomplete fool of his officer, of course. But I'll find him."
Bel Menstal waved his hand in dismissal, then leaned back in his chair,watching as his steward directed a pair of men-at-arms. They carried thelimp form from the room.
* * * * *
"There. That'll pick up any power radiation from the castle." Konarstraightened, looking at the small panel.
"Good enough." Meinora leaned over, checking the dials. "See you've setit for average power."
"Yes, sir. It'll give a flicker indication for low levels and it'll failto trip for unaided thought. Not too much chance of an overload,either."
"That's right. You're learning." Meinora nodded casually. "Well, let'skeep watch on it." He sat down. "Audio alarm on?"
Konar glanced at the panel again. "I remembered it this time." Hegrinned, then looked curiously at his superior's cut cheek. The woundwas healing nicely. In an hour or so, there would be no visible trace ofthe injury.
"Say, Chief," he asked, "how'd you happen to get slapped?"
"I asked for it." Meinora smiled thoughtfully.
"Yes, sir. I know that. But what was the purpose?"
"This continent has never been thoroughly checked, so we're sampling theculture. We know a lot about them now, but there's a lot we still haveto know. For example, how do they react to various stimuli? And how muchstimulus is necessary to produce a given action? Of course, we can'tcheck every individual, but we can pick up a sample from each communitywe contact and extrapolate from them." Meinora spread his hands.
"So, I presented a minor irritation to that officer, and hereacted--fast. He didn't just slap me for effect. He was infuriated atthe insult to his authority. Not only that, but his men expected him toreact in just that manner. I noted that, too. He'd have lost face ifhe'd acted in any other way. And the men-at-arms were disappointed whenwe gave them no further excuse for violence. We really lost face withthem. There, we have an indication that violence is the expected thingin this particular castle, which is a community of the duchy. Right?"
"Yes." Konar nodded thoughtfully. "They're not only violent themselves,but they expect violence from others. I see what you mean. You'll samplethe other baronies?"
"Certainly. As many as we contact. They can tell us quite a bit. We----"
A buzzer interrupted him. Meinora snapped a switch and sat forwardalertly.
A needle quivered, rose from its rest, and swung abruptly across themeter scale. With an audible ping, it slapped against the stop beyondthe maximum reading.
Meinora looked sharply at the detector set, then turned a selectorswitch. The needle moved reluctantly away from the pin, but remainedabove the red line at center scale. Meinora grimaced, twisted theselector again, and adjusted another knob, till the needle came to restat center.
He examined the dial readings, frowned incredulously, then turned.
"Look at it," he invited. "It's a wonder he hasn't burned that amplifierout. It's a heavy duty job, I know. But----"
Konar leaned over his chief's shoulder.
"What an overload! We've found it, all right. But what's going on?"
"Let's find out." Meinora flipped a switch. The two men tensed againstthe resultant shock and were silent for a time. At last, Konar reachedout to snap the switch off.
"Just raw, crushing force," he said wonderingly. "A ferocious demand,with no regard for facts, no consideration of mental characteristics, nothought of consequence." He shook his head slowly. "Never experiencedanything just like that before."
"With the power he's using," Meinora remarked, "it's a wonder he doesn'tupset every mind in his castle." He snapped the detector off.
"Including his own." Konar nodded and looked at the dial settings. "Onething's sure. This boy never had any instruction." He stepped back."Well, we know he has it. What's the procedure?"
Meinora was frowning thoughtfully. He stroked his injured cheek, thenshook his head.
"We certainly let that guard officer in for something," he mused. "Haveto pick him up and give him therapy, I think." He looked at Konar. "Oh,procedure?"
"Yes, sir. Do we catch him alone and proceed as we did with the lastone? That worked with no trouble."
"No, I don't think it'd work out so well in this case. If I caught itright, this one's almost never by himself outside his apartment. Likesto impress his personality on people." Meinora looked at the detectorset, then around at the younger man beside him.
"You know, I got some interesting side thoughts just now. Maybe we cando two jobs in one this time. It'll take a little longer, but it mightsave time in the long run."
The communications operator came over. "Not another of those?" he askedwith a grin.
Meinora nodded. "I'm just dreaming up a nice, dirty trick," he admitted."Tried something like it once before, on a smaller scale. It worked." Hestood up, stretching.
"The fair's going to be on at Orieano in a little while, right?"
"Yes. Be a pretty big affair, too, I think. Why?"
"And the Duke'll be there, of course, along with most of his court and agood share of his fighting men?"
"Why,
yes, sir. They tell me he's always been there. Don't suppose he'llskip it this time."
"So, it's perfect. We'll get this set of equipment in public, and withapparent legitimacy. And in the process, we'll set up social strainsthat'll result in this area reorienting itself." Meinora looked aroundwith a grin.
"Look, call Barskor. Tell him to pick us up with the flier. We'll godown to the hills south of Orieano. Tell you about it on the way."
* *
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