"_Payable to Bearer on Demand, Ten Thousand Dollars. This Note is Legal Tender for all Debts, Public and Private, and is Redeemable in Lawful Money at the Treasury of the Kingdom of Superior._ (Signed) _Gizl, Secretary of the Treasury._" X Don didn't know what he might learn by skulking around the freezing grounds of Hector's palace in the faint moonlight. He hoped for a glimpse of the kangaroo-Gizl to see if he were as sincere off-guard as he had been during their interview. But his peering into basement windows had revealed nothing, and he was about to head back to the campus for a night's sleep when someone called his name. It was a girl's voice, from above. He looked up. Red-headed Geneva Jervis was leaning out of one of the second-story windows. "Well, hello," he said. "What are you doing up there?" "I've sworn fealty," she said. "Come on up." "What?" he said. "How?" She disappeared from his sight, then reappeared. "Here." She dropped a rope ladder. Don climbed it, feeling Like Romeo. "Where'd you get this?" "They've got them in all the rooms. Fire escapes. Old McFerson was a precautious man, evidently." She pulled the rope back in. Jen Jervis had a spacious bedroom. She wore a dressing gown. "What do you mean, you swore fealty?" Don asked. "To Hector?" "Sure. What better way to find out what he's up to? Besides, I was getting fed up with that dormitory at Cavalier. No privacy. House mothers creeping around all the time. Want a drink?" Don saw that she had a half-full glass on the dresser. Next to the glass stood a bottle of bourbon with quite a bit gone from it. "Why not?" he said. "Let's drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may freeze to death." "Or be shot down by Reds." She poured him a stiff one. "Here's to happy endings." He sipped his drink and she swallowed half of hers. "I didn't picture you as the drinking type, Jen." "Revise the picture. Come sit down." She backed to the big double bed and relaxed into it, lying on one elbow. Don sat next to her, but upright. "Tell me about this fealty deal. What did you have to do?" "Oh, renounce my American citizenship and swear to protect Superior against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The usual thing." "Have you got a title yet? Are you Dame Jervis?" "Not yet." She smiled. "I think I'm on probation. They know I'm close to Bobby and they'd like to have him on their side, for all their avowed independence. They're not so terribly convinced that Superior's going to stay up forever. They're hedging their bets, it looks to me." "It looks to me that maybe Bobby Thebold might not understand. He's the kind of man who demands absolute fealty, from what I've seen of him." "Oh, to hell with Bobby Thebold." Jen took another swallow. "He's not here. He's had plenty of time to come, if he was going to, and he hasn't. To hell with him. Let me get you another drink."