asked. "And who's there whom we may or may not trust?"

"Well, it's a dome house belonging to the family of Starpha; they own
a five-mile radius around it, oak and beech forest and underbrush,
stocked with deer and boar. A hunting lodge. Prince Jirzyn of Starpha,
Lord Girzon of Roxor, and a few other top-level Volitionalists, know
that the Lady Dallona's hiding there. They're keeping her out of sight
till after the election, for propaganda purposes. We've been hiding
there since immediately after the discarnation feast of the Lord
Garnon of Roxor."

"What happened, after the feast?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.

"Well, you know how the Lady Dallona and Dr. Harnosh of Hosh had this
telepathic-sensitive there, in a trance and drugged with a
_zerfa_-derivative alkaloid the Lady Dallona had developed. I was Lord
Garnon's Assassin; I discarnated him, myself. Why, I hadn't even put
my pistol away before he was in control of this sensitive, in a room
five stories above the banquet hall; he began communicating at once.
We had visiplates to show us what was going on.

"Right away, Nirzav of Shonna, one of the Statisticalist leaders who
was a personal friend of Lord Garnon's in spite of his politics,
renounced Statisticalism and went over to the Volitionalists, on the
strength of this communication. Prince Jirzyn, and Lord Girzon, the
new family-head of Roxor, decided that there would be trouble in the
next few days, so they advised the Lady Dallona to come to this
hunting lodge for safety. She and I came here in her airboat, directly
from the feast. A good thing we did, too; if we'd gone to her
apartment, we'd have walked in before that lethal gas had time to