Kallee did not appear to be disconcerted. His next move was one which took his rivals by surprise, in spite of their suspicions. "Under the laws of the Fellowship, O, Groft," he clung to the formal speech, "I claim redress--" Ali's hand moved. Through his growing distress Dane saw Van Rycke's jaw tighten, the fighting mask snap back on Captain Jellico's face. Whatever came now was real trouble. Groft's eyes flickered over the party from the Queen. Though he had just pledged cup friendship with four of them, he had the malicious humor of his race. He would make no move to head off what might be coming. "By the right of the knife and the net," he intoned, "you have the power to claim personal satisfaction. Where is your enemy?" Kallee turned to face the Free Traders. "I hereby challenge a champion to be set out from these off-worlders to meet by the blood and by the water my champion--" The Salariki were getting excited. This was superb entertainment, an engagement such as they had never hoped to see--alien against alien. The rising murmur of their voices was like the growl of a hunting beast. Groft smiled and the pleasure that expression displayed was neither Terran--nor human. But then the clan leader was not either, Dane reminded himself. "Four of these warriors are clan-bound," he said. "But the others may produce a champion--" Dane looked along the line of his comrades--Ali, Rip, Weeks and himself had just been ruled out. That left Jellico, Van Rycke, Karl Kosti, the giant jetman whose strength they had to rely upon before, Stotz the Engineer, Medic Tau and Steen Wilcox. If it were strength alone he would have chosen Kosti, but the big man was not too quick a thinker-- Jellico got to his feet, the embodiment of a star lane fighting man. In the flickering light the scar on his cheek seemed to ripple. "Who's your champion?" he asked Kallee. The Eysie Cargo-master was grinning. He was confident he had pushed them into a position from which they could not extricate themselves. "You accept challenge?" he countered. Jellico merely repeated his question and Kallee beckoned forward one of his men. The Eysie who stepped up was no match for Kosti. He was a slender, almost wand-slim young man, whose pleased smirk said that he, too, was about to put something over on the notorious Free Traders. Jellico studied him for a couple of long seconds during which the hum of Salariki voices was the threatening buzz of a disturbed wasps' nest. There was no way out of this--to refuse conflict was to lose all they had won with the clansmen. And they did not doubt that Kallee had, in some way, triggered the scales against them. Jellico made the best of it. "We accept challenge," his voice was level. "We, being guesting in Groft's holding, will fight after the manner of the Salariki who are proven warriors--" He paused as roars of pleased acknowledgment arose around the board.