"Zitu!" Sinon lifted himself on his couch. "What, Jasor, is this? What mean you, my son? What is this device?" "One I have in mind," Croft told him. "Come. You make your money with ships. Apply some of it to making them more swift of motion. Let me make this device, and they shall mount the Na more swiftly than now they run with the current and the wind." Sinon turned his eyes to the woman at his side. "And this is our son, who was a dullard!" he exclaimed. "In whom I always have had faith," Mellia replied with a smile of maternal joy on her face. "You have faith in this thing he proposes?" Sinon went on. "Aye. I think Zitu himself spoke to him in his deathlike sleep," the woman said. "Then, by Zitu--he shall make the attempt!" Sinon roared. "Should he succeed, the king himself would make him a knight for his service to the state." Croft's heart leaped and ran racing for a minute at the words. Knighthood! That was the answer to the question in his brain--the bridge which should cross the gulf between Naia of Aphur and himself. He crushed back his emotions, however, and faced Sinon again. "Then I may carry out my plan?" "Aye--to the half of my wealth," Sinon declared. "Jasor, I do not understand the change which has come upon you. But this thing you may do if you can." "Then we stop at Himyra," Croft announced. "At Himyra!" Sinon stared. "Aye. I would see Jadgor of Aphur so quickly as I may." "See Jadgor? You?" Sinon protested. "Think you Jadgor receives men of our caste without good cause?" "He will see Jasor of Nodhur," Croft told him with a smile. "Wait, my father, and you shall witness that, and more." And now all doubt, all foreboding left him, and he planned. That night as he lay in his bunk aboard the galley, he smiled. To him it seemed that any doubt must have been transferred to the minds of Sinon and Mellia. He heard them speaking above the lap of the waters and the squeak of the oars. He realized how much of an enigma he had become to these two who believed themselves his parents--how wonderful to them must be the change in their son. But his own mind was coolly collected and calm. He would see Jadgor. He would use his knowledge of that monarch's present wishes to interest him in his plans. He would become not a knight of Nodhur, but a knight of Aphur instead. And then--then--Croft smiled and fell asleep. The next day he questioned Sinon concerning the nature of the oil used in the lamps, and found it a vegetable product, as he had feared. But--he had been given evidence that the wine supply of the country held no small alcoholic content, which could be recovered in pure form with comparative ease. And--he knew enough of motors to know that slight changes would enable them to burn alcohol in lieu of petroleum-gas. Straightway he asked for something on which to draft his plans.