"We have a list of the travel agencies used by the Soumians who were taken on Thurben Island. We'll visit these places and try to identify the connecting link with Ogmo Enterprises. Perhaps we can turn up an address or a bank account or even a person with a name and a face."

"Possibly."

"If we work briskly, we should easily be able to finish here inside of four days assuming, of course, that we find it necessary to go on to Tassadero, which I hope will not be so."

Kirdy was still not reconciled to the schedule.

"Four days may not be enough. Of all the places the Mummers played, this was our favorite. Everyone liked the sausages from the little sausage grills. You'll see them everywhere around town and especially out on the Octacle. At one of these grills, the sausages were particularly tasty, and I am anxious to discover its location. Floreste never allowed us more than two apiece, which everyone considered extremely unkind and avaricious of him. Two sausages were just enough to tantalize a person. I am determined to locate the best and my most favorite sausage grill. It may well take more than four days. If so, what of that? At last I will get my fill of those wonderful sausages!"

Glawen opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. What was there to say? He started over again.

"Kirdy, do you hear me?"

"Of course I hear you."

"We are not here to search out sausages, not even if they were nectar and ambrosia and attar of roses, all mixed together. If you must look for sausages, I cannot stop you, but I will not join you."

Kirdy's eyes gleamed blue.

"This is not sensible! We must stay together!"

"It seems sensible to me. You track down the wonderful sausages;

I'll look for Ogmo Enterprises and we'll both be happy."

"Bah. In the first place, four days is not long enough."

"For me or for you?"

"For me. I don't want to be hurried, and run from one grill to the next, eating sausages with both hands."

"Quite all right; stay as long as you like."

"Oh? And what of you?"

"As soon as I finish, I'm leaving."

Kirdy's big pink face became aggrieved.

"That is not a pleasant attitude."

Glawen became vexed, despite his best intentions.

"Ha! You and your sausage quest. I can't take it seriously. Don't you remember what we're here for?"

Kirdy smiled sourly.

"I remember, well enough. But I'm no longer interested. What difference does it make now? It's all in the past. Now is now, and now is when I am alive."

"It is absolutely pointless becoming angry with you," said Glawen.

"Come, it's time for lunch. Eat sausages if you like; it seems a harmless addiction. Come to think of it, I like sausages too."

At intervals around the Octacle small sausage grills wafted savory odors into the air. Kirdy insisted upon buying and devouring two sausages at each of four different grills. At each place he said: "Quite good, but not the sausage I'm looking for." Or: "A bit too much pepper spice here, don't you think?" And: "These sausages have good character, but they lack a certain something. But let's try that grill over yonder; it might just be the one I'm looking for."

At each location Kirdy consumed the sausages with full deliberation, nibbling a bit at a time, while Glawen watched in mingled annoyance and amusement. Kirdy apparently hoped to circumvent Glawen's plans by wasting so much time that Glawen would be forced to postpone his departure. But while Kirdy ate sausages Glawen located the travel agencies he wished to visit on a map of the city. Almost all were located on or near the Octacle. When Kirdy started for the fifth grill, Glawen pointed to one of the travel agencies, only a few yards distant.

"Lunchtime is over. I will be in there. Eat sausages or go back to the hotel: just as you like."

Kirdy became angry.

"I have not finished my lunch yet."

"Too bad. There's work to be done."

Kirdy turned away from the sausage grills and followed Glawen to the travel agency.

So passed the afternoon, the whole of the second day and the morning of the third, with Kirdy wasting as much time as possible and Glawen finding a grim and, so he well realized, unreasonable pleasure in thwarting Kirdy's dilatory tactics.

During this period Glawen visited each of the travel agencies on the list. At each the results were similar. Each had transacted its business with a personable young woman wearing garments of off-world style. Her most striking

attribute, from the Soumian perspective, was her unabashed fe mining ity, the recollection of which brought small smiles to the faces of the men and contemptuous sniffs from the women. She was described as of middle stature, with a lavish figure and hair defined as black, brown, auburn, red, blond and silver-white, the color apparently being adjusted to either her mood or her costume. She was further characterized as "off-world exotic," "schlemielish" (an adjective be yond Glawen's comprehension), "hoity-toity," pre tensive all bust, bottom and eyelash," "a bit pushy," "off-caste refined, if you know what I mean." And:

"Mysterious! I asked her name and she said she was the '0' in "Ogmo." Does that make sense? I ask you!"

"I took her for no better than she had to be; definitely larky." And: "She came on like an actress, all poses." And: "I asked her where these Perfection of Joy parties took place; she said: "On Cadwal." I asked if all the girls on Cadwal were as pretty as she was. She just smiled and said it wasn't her kind of place, being much too old-fashioned."

In each of the agencies, Glawen inquired as to the financial arrangements

"When you sold vouchers for these Perfection of Joy excursions, you received money. What happened to this money? Did the young lady pick it up?"

In each case the answer was the same.

"We transferred the money to the Ogmo account at the Bank of Mircea. These were our instructions; we followed them explicity."

"Have you seen the young woman on any other occasions?"

"No, sir."

"Do you know where the offices of Ogmo Enterprises are located?"

"No, sir."

Glawen could not avoid a sensation of disappointment. The most promising leads of the investigation had dwindled to nothing. He had learned only of a young woman who had come and gone, leaving no indication of her identity, although her personality and even her appearance had taken on a murky reality.

Kirdy ate his usual lunch of sausages, and made his usual attempt to prolong the lunch hour, and his lack of success, as usual, provoked a series of surly protests. Glawen paid no heed and with Kirdy as usual sauntering two steps behind, he crossed the Octacle to the Bank of Mircea by coincidence, that bank controlled by Alvary Irling, still in custody at Araminta Station.

At the bank Glawen was forced to argue and threaten and flourish his credentials up four tiers of ever more elevated functionaries before he finally gained access to an official with both the authority and the will to dispense information. Kirdy meanwhile waited in the lobby, intently watching Glawen's every move, apparently suspecting at some level of his mind that Glawen might try to give him the slip.