But the shaman looked up, said; "And who are those two, that man and woman?"
Genghis Kahn shrugged imperial shoulders. Chepe shook his head.
"Then I say they are an evil omen."
"Ho!" roared Genghis Kahn, evidently more superstitious than history had suspected. "Detain them!"
Yakka warriors converged on them. Tedor grabbed Laniq's hand and started running, fanning his atomic pistol's fire all around them. He caught a glimpse of Chepe Noyon's face, astonishment stamping the features, and then he forgot everything but the fact that they had to run—and hard—over the shifting, seething sand.
The desert was strewn with corpses, but the warriors kept coming, for life was cheap on the Gobi. Presently they showed sufficient imagination to keep well back out of range of the atomic pistol, however, and when Tedor and Laniq reached the time-conveyor they were alone.
They tumbled inside, Laniq running to the controls and Tedor bolting the door. Tedor would never forget Chepe Noyon's face as they departed. He did not have to say you are not alone. Clearly Chepe knew it.
"Enough!" Tedor cried. "I believe you." His head was whirling, but if the girl said her people had beaten the monopolist in all but the twentieth century, he wanted to go there at once.
She smiled at him. "No. I want to really convince you."