"Idiot! Think of the Lady Fani!"
The Lady Fani suddenly smiled tremulously.
"Wonderful!" she said. "They don't dare do anything while you're as close to me as this!"
"Do you suppose," asked Hoddan, "I could count on that?"
"I'm certain of it!" said Fani. "And I think you'd better."
"Then, excuse me," said Hoddan with great politeness.
He swung her up and over his shoulder. With a stun-pistol in his free hand he headed down the hall.
"Outside," she said zestfully. "Get out the side door and turn left, and nobody can jump down on your neck. Then left again to the gate."
He obeyed. Now and again he got in a pot-shot with his pistol. Don Loris had turned the castle into a very pretty trap. The Lady Fani said plaintively:
"This is terribly undignified, and I can't see where we're going. Where are we now?"