"What are you trying to do?" Buckmaster asked harshly. "Make a small-time hero of yourself with this grandstand play?" "Not at all," Gamoll answered. "I'm the long shot Oliver mentioned." "You're lying." "Then how would I know what Oliver said?" "It may be a lucky guess. Why should I trust you?" "Mainly because you have no choice. What have you got to lose?" He was a cool character. Buckmaster shrugged. He hated this playing it blind, but the fellow was right. "O.K.," he said. "You might as well take your hands down. Let's go." They went down the stairs. At the rear exit Gamoll looked out. He wore no hat. The wind from the alley fluffed the hair on the side of his head. "All clear," Gamoll said. "Make a dash for it. When you get in the carriage lie low. Now!" The die was cast, Buckmaster decided. He'd play it to the hilt now, all or nothing. He sprinted across the dirt of the alley and jerked open a door of the carriage. He threw himself inside and hugged the floor. Soon the carriage began to roll. When they had travelled about a half block it stopped. Buckmaster drew in his breath. This was the critical point. If Gamoll could bluff his way through now the rest would be comparatively easy. "Give me an escort, Captain," he heard Gamoll say. "I don't want to get tied up here. I understand there's going to be some shooting soon." "That's right, sir," a crisp military voice answered. "It's best that you get out fast. I'll send one of my men with you." The carriage started forward again. A half-hour later it stopped once more. "You may get up now," Gamoll said. "We're going inside. Stay close to me." * * * * * "Buckmaster was not surprised when he alighted and found himself near a side door to the General's private residence. "I don't get all this," Buckmaster said. "You've had me here for six days now, and I've only seen you twice. Why should the General's son be hiding me?" "Quite simple. I don't like his methods, or his government, any more than you do. Oliver knew that when he sent his message to me asking for help." "Do you mean to say that you'd help us kill your own father?" "As to that," Gamoll said, "if you'll notice, my hair and eyes are brown. "So?" "Koski's eyes and my mother's are blue. You probably know that it is genetically impossible for two-blue-eyed people to have a brown-eyed son." "Then you're not his son?" Buckmaster was silent for a minute. "That's why you took the name of your mother's other husband," he mused. "If you remember, when the law was passed that each woman must have two husbands, the General set the example by marrying a woman who already had a husband. He knows that I am not his son biologically, but I am legally, and I have full inheritance rights. He was too smart--as well as legally exact--to disown me." "That means you'd automatically become the government head if the General died?"