"... Mr. H, I have a present for you. I baked them myself ... --May I drive you to wherever you're going? --Which gods do you pray to, sir... ? --My brother has this allergy ..."

He backed to the desk and leaned toward tile woman who had received him there.

"I wasn't warned of this," he said.

"We didn't expect it either," she told him. "They assembled in a matter of minutes. There was no way of knowing. Get back in the corridor, and I'll tell them no one is allowed beyond here. I'll call for someone to show you out the back way.

"Thanks."

He passed through the door once more, waving and smiling to the people.

A cry went up as he departed. It was a combination of "H!" and a cheer.

He stood in the corridor until an orderly appeared and conducted him to the rear of the building.

"May I drive you a distance from here?" the man inquired. "If the crowd sees you walking nearby and recognizes you-- well, they might follow and be a bother."

"All right," said Heidel. "Why not take me half a dozen blocks or so in the direction of those hills."

He gestured toward the ones he had crossed in coming to Italbar.

"I can take you right up to the foot of them, sir. Save you some walking."

"Thanks, but I want to stop somewhere and pick up some supplies--maybe even get a warm meal--before I head on up. Do you know any place in that direction where I could?"

"There are several. I'll take you to a small one on a quiet street. I don't think you'll be troubled there. --That's my car," he indicated.

They encountered no difficulty in reaching the place the orderly had recommended--an old-smelling, narrow store with wooden floors, walls lined with uncovered shelves-- selling food retail in the front and serving it in a tiny dining room in the rear. Only one thing disturbed Heidel. When the vehicle had halted before the establishment, the orderly had reached down inside his collar and fetched forth a green amulet--a lizard with an inlaid line of silver down its back.