"No? Lin tells it differently. He is entranced by the man shy;ner in which you co-opted labor to move the cargo. And he is bemused by the speed of your movements. The way in which you caught Claude's wrist. To hear him relate the story is to believe that you moved far more quickly than is considered possible."
"Lin is young," said Dumarest.
"And the young tend to exaggerate." Nimino moved a lit shy;tle, resting his shoulder on the edge of the open port. "True, but the facts remain. Have you ever undergone specialized training? I ask because the school of Jengha Dal teaches a system by which the reflexes can be accelerated. Do you know of it?"
"No."
"Perhaps your formative years were spent on a world of excessive gravity," mused the navigator. "But no, your phys shy;ical development contradicts that supposition. As your strength contradicts the assumption that you are a common traveler who chooses to work a passage from fear of riding Low."
Dumarest stacked the final crate and turned to look at the navigator. "Did I say that?"
"Sheyan assumed it; but, of course, he was wrong. Those who travel Low have little body fat and less strength. The caskets enfeeble them. You are far from feeble."
"And you are too curious," said Dumarest flatly.
"Perhaps, my friend, but it is said that the path to knowledge lies through the asking of many questions. For example, I ask myself why a man such as you should have been in such a hurry to leave Aarn. For fear of a man? A woman? I think not and yet you chose to leave on a ship like this. Perhaps Fate was pressing at your heels, in which case a man has no choice. But, again, why on a ship like this? Your experience must have told you what the Moray is. A scavenger sweeping between close-set stars. Lin joined us, true, but he knew no better. Claude had no choice and Sheyan is snared in an economic trap."
"And you?"
Nimino shrugged. "An astrologer predicted that I should find great knowledge in a cloud of dust. The Web is such a cloud."
"And the knowledge?"
"Is still to come."
Some knowledge, perhaps, but the navigator would be learned in the ways of trading. And perhaps more. He could easily be a sensitive, a clairvoyant able to peer into the fu shy;ture, or a telepath with the skill of reading minds; or per shy;haps he could sense impending danger as an animal would sense .the approach of a hunter. Or he could simply be highly curious and inordinately suspicious.
"It will come," said Dumarest. "When the time is ripe. Until then it could be a good idea to concentrate on your books."
"You dislike my curiosity?"
"I dislike anything which seems to have no purpose," said Dumarest. "And I cannot understand why you should be interested in me."
"In the Web a man needs to know with whom he travels," said Nimino quietly. "A little you have shown of yourself. Not much, but a little. For example I now know that you are not easily cowed. That you are accustomed to violence. That your reflexes are amazingly fast and that you are looking for something. A planet named Earth. Well, wherever it is you will not find it in the Web. I would venture to guess that, by mischance or the workings of fate, you have found yourself in a blind alley. The Moray is not an easy ship to leave."
Not easy but neither was it hard; Dumarest could walk off now, but what then? Weeks and perhaps months of waiting stuck on this barely colonized world, exposed to anyone who wanted to find him, vulnerable if they should. He shrugged, trying to throw off the feeling which had fol shy;lowed him from world to world and was with him still. The sense that someone was at his back, watching, waiting to pounce. And it was not wholly a thing of imagination.
The dead man Yalung had spoken about. He had been a thief and Dumarest had stunned and tied him fast. Later he had found him dead and had gone immediately to the field. Luck had seemed to favor him when the handler had been murdered in the tavern but now he wasn't so sure.
Luck-or design?
And, if the latter, why?
"You are thinking, Earl," said Nimino breaking the si shy;lence. "What about? The cargo?"
Dumarest was willing to change the subject. "It's heavy."
"And valuable, despite what you are probably thinking. We traded the machine patterns for it and the buyer must have been satisfied to have delivered the goods so promptly." The navigator stepped deeper into the hold and kicked one of the crates. "Iron," he said. "Many of the inner worlds lack heavy metals and some of them need the oxide in order to provide trace-elements in the soil. We shall turn this load with profit. They are poor worlds, Earl. Starvation planets for the most part, colonized by mischance rather than intent. Surely you have come across such worlds before?"
Backward planets at the end of the line. Dead worlds without industry or work for transients, making it impossible for them to gather the cost of a Low passage.
"I've seen a few," said Dumarest. "They are bad places for a traveler to find."
"No world is a good one on which to be stranded," agreed Nimino. "You must tell me about them some day. In return I will tell you of Clothon, of Landkis and Brame. Sacred places all. Planets which have known the tread of those closer to the Ultimate than we. Holy places."
"Each world is a holy place," said Dumarest quietly. To those who believe it so."
"And Earth? Is that mysterious world such a place?"
"Perhaps." Dumarest looked past the navigator to where two figures approached the ship from across the field. "The captain and our passenger. When do we leave?"
"Before sunset."
"To where?"
Nimino's laugh was mocking. "Does it matter, my friend? To us, all worlds are much the same: places to reach and leave with the minimum of delay. But, if you are interested, we head for Argonilla."
They were five hours on their way when the engineer sent for Dumarest. He looked up from where he sat at his console, the winking lights of monitoring instruments throw shy;ing patches of transient color across his mottled face. On one side of his jaw a purple bruise spread high up his cheek.
"I'm sorry, Earl," he said. "I was drunk and didn't know what I was doing. You've got to believe that."
"All right," said Dumarest. "You were drunk. I believe you. Is that what you want?"
"I want you to understand. I felt sick when Lin told me what I'd tried to do. I mean that, Earl."
"Sure you do-until the next time." Dumarest stared down at the engineer, remembering the shattered tumbler, the stabbing points. "But if it happens again I'll kill you."
"You mean it," said Claude. "And I don't blame you. But it was the drink, not me." He blinked at the winking lights, touches of gaudy brightness illuminating his eyes. "It gets into me sometimes. The drink, I mean. It turns sour and then it's a sort of devil that's got to break loose. Anything can do it. One minute I'll be laughing and then, just like that, I'll be in a killing rage. That's why I'm not on the big ships," he confessed. "I was drinking on duty, the chief bawled me out and I smashed him up with a wrench. I didn't kill him but he was pretty bad. They gave me fifty lashes and threw me out. They marked my papers, too, and you can't get a berth on a decent vessel without them. Not on any ship as an engineer. Sheyan didn't seem to mind-with the little I get from my share he had no choice." He stood up from the console and held out his hand. "Can we forget it, Earl?"
The Moray was too small a vessel to harbor bad feelings.
Slowly Dumarest took the proffered hand. "All right," he said. "But remember what I told you."
"I'll remember." Claude winced as he touched his cheek. "I've got reason not to forget. You damn near broke my jaw."
"It hurts?"
"Like hell. Can you give me anything for it?"
"Sure," said Dumarest. "Can you come to my cabin?"
Claude glanced at his instruments. "Not just yet. Give it to Lin to bring down. I want him to see the board when we reach supraspeed. The more experience he gets the bet shy;ter."
Dumarest found the steward in his cabin reading a worn copy of an engine manual and handed him the hypogun.
"This is for Claude," he said. "Take it down to him right away and give him one shot just over the bruise. Aim the nozzle within three inches and pull the trigger. Make certain you don't hit the eyes. Understand?"