Austin opened the chest and pushed back the lid. Lying on pur- ple velvet inside the chest was a sword in its scabbard. He lifted the leather scabbard from the chest and inspected the gold-clad hilt and hand guard. Set into the heavy triangular pommel was a huge ruby. The elaborate hand guard was etched with flowers. He mused at the incongruity of the beautiful decoration on a weapon with such deadly potential.

He hefted the two-edged sword, feeling the perfect balance, then gingerly drew the weapon from the scabbard. An electric thrill seemed to run through his arm. Could this be Durendal, the fabled weapon that Roland swung against the Saracens? The blade was chipped here and there. A picture flitted through his mind of Roland banging the sword against a stone so that it wouldn't fall into the hands of the enemy.

Zavala whistled. “That thing must be worth a fortune.” Austin thought about all the time and money Balthazar Aguirrez had expended in his search for the object in his hand. “It's worth a lot more than that,” he said.

He removed his coat and buckled the scabbard around his waist. He took a few steps as an experiment and found that the scabbard slapped against his leg. The thick leather belt hindered access to his revolver holster as well. He tried another position, slipping the scab- bard belt over his shoulder so that the sword hung down by his left side. Then he got back into his coat.

“Planning to do some fencing?” Zavala said. “Maybe. You must admit it beats your army knife.” “My knife has a corkscrew,” Zavala reminded him. “What about the overgrown bugle?”

“We'd better put it back. I don't want to advertise the fact that I've absconded with the toothpick under my coat.”

They carefully replaced the horn the way it was found and moved to the other side of the room, where a map of the world was spread out on the worktable. Austin bent over the map and saw that coastal areas on all the continents were blocked out in red pen. Noted next to each red section was a date and a listing of various species offish. A large star marked the lake site where they had boarded the airship. He drew his finger from the star along a pencil line due east into the North Atlantic. The notation above the line was that day's date.

He straightened and said, “We've got to stop this ship before it gets to the Atlantic. This isn't a test run.”

“Fine with me. I might point out that this thing is almost a thou- sand feet long and full of heavily armed thugs who might have other ideas.”

"We don't have to take over the whole ship, just the control cabin.'

“Why didn't you say so? It's as good as done.”

“Think you can fly this old gasbag?”