Neither could miss, but it was deadlock.
"I'll bargain with you, Credus," suggested Wilding. "Unless you want to chance pulling that trigger."
"What bargain?" asked Credus sourly.
"Meet me here again in two Earth-weeks. I will fight you then without a gun, or turn the asteroid over to you."
Credus shrugged. "I am not a fool, halfling. But be here, or I will find you and kill you."
Credus stalked darkly from the arena, followed in silence by a full third of the assembled prisoners. With his departure, the cheers for Wilding were less enthusiastic, as if the throng disapproved of Wilding's trickery.
Tiny, the Amazon, was kneeling beside Tichron, who was conscious now, but breathing heavily.
"She was a nurse on Earth," explained Concor. "Before she got the habit of strangling her fretful patients."
The woman looked up and smiled brightly. "That gun of mine is loaded with alternating blanks," she observed. "I kept wondering if Credus would call your bluff."
Wilding met her glance. "So did I," he admitted. "And I remembered about those blanks. Can you do anything for Tichron?"