Seconds ticked away while the two Arkadian nobles stared at one another. Then Duke Harald laughed once; a bitter mirthless sound.
“Well,” he said to Count Godfrey, “it looks as though you won’t lose that space-boat after all!”
“But—what to do?”
“Invite Master Elwyn in, by all means,” said Duke Harald. He relaxed a little from his tight concentration. His fertile brain began to see that this need not be checkmate; that one last move remained to him.
“Invite him in,” he said again. “And admit nothing, deny everything—stall for time. But you know how to do it—you’re the diplomat around here.”
“And you?”
“Me? Oh, I’ll be out of sight upstairs. You have a sterilamp around the place?”
“Yes. But—”
“Have Borrow fetch it to me, or show me where it is. I’ll go to earth—temporarily!—in one of your spare bedrooms.”
“Then, you’re not going to break out?”