I was the apex of the triangle. They considered me while I considered them, the circulation returning to my legs and my mind like a frog’s tongue leaping for a fly a quarter-inch out of reach—where had I met this man before, and if we had met before did he recognize me? It was impossible to tell from his eyes, candid though their consideration seemed.

The captain wore in his right ear a red jewel which glinted in the sunlight and hypnotized me a little. He couldn’t wear anything in his other ear, you could see under his coarse hair and half-healed scar where it had been. That must have been quite a recent fight. It was much warmer in the sun when we were not on the move.

“Excuse me, sir,” I said to the tall man. “I’ve a feeling we’ve met before, but I can’t put a name to your face.”

“More or less what I was about to ask you,” said the captain. “Usual questions with stowaways. Who are you?”

“I can’t pay you for the journey I’ve had,” I said. “I’d better make that clear at the outset. But I’ve had only a night and three-quarters of a day, and they were cramped and cold—and no food.”

“Ho. And have you reached your destination, or aren’t you satisfied with the time of your discovery?”

“I’m quite happy here, thank you.” “Good”

He continued to pull at his lip, red-brown in his beard, then turned to the other and burst out, “Damnedest things, stowaways. Rare and you never can tell with them. It is true you’ve met her someplace, sir?”

“It’s possible she’s seen me.”

“Of course. You don’t remember noticing her? Probably seen you in one of your processions. Do you want her?” said the captain on a kind of open-handed appeal. “There’s nothing I can do with a young lady, what with people unwilling to take her on the market because they’d be afraid she’s been stolen, and she’s obviously one, for all her lack of means …” I was longing for him to bow and apologize for my uncomfortable journey but going that far did not occur to him.

“What would 7 do with her?” said the tall man, amused, but with a strange inflexion in his voice.

The captain looked as though he’d committed a social solecism but didn’t think it would be taken too badly. “Ah, you should know that better’n me,” he said. “There’s always the vaults for secrets …”

“Why did you leave the Capital?” the man asked me.

I was startled. At first I thought he must have recognized me after all and remembered seeing me in the City, then I realized it was obvious where I’d come from by the number of days I’d said my voyage had lasted.