"Seems kinda excitable, not like a normal man-"

"He's worried about the children. So am I. How about if we arrange some snacks for 'em? Or carry- pots, so they can use the toilet right on the tram?"

"The tram has toilets?"

"No-that's why I said carry-pots. Families have them here, to take along with a small child, if

there's not a toilet around."

"There's toilets in the tram station, though, aren't there?"

"Sure, but if you don't want to let them off the train. Little children-I'm sure you know about

them, and how they run around getting into things-it's smart of you to keep them safe, in one place."

Flattery couldn't hurt, he was sure.

"We want to talk to our women," the voice said.

Cavallo felt his eyebrows going up. "Your women?" he asked cautiously.

"Don't pretend you don't know. Those Rangers' wives you stole, and their chillen-we want to tell 'em to get theirselves home."

"Just a second-" Cavallo blanked the mike and called to the stationmaster. "Are there any of those NewTex women at this station?"

"No, they left awhile back. Why?"

"Because these fellows came to take them home, that's why. Do you know where they went?"

"No. I can look on the passenger lists, but that'll only tell me which ship."

"Which we don't want to tell these lads," Cavallo said. He flipped the mike back on and spoke into it. "I just asked the stationmaster, and he says they aren't here. They were, but they left awhile back."

"Yer lying! You git us our chillen, or we'll take yours."

"I can get you a list-" Cavallo waved, and the stationmaster came back over. "We need a list or something, so these men know those women aren't here-"

"There's a directory accessible from the public dataports in Heavy Cargo, but we cut the lines-"

"Well, put in a shielded line."

"We're gonna blow up this whole place if you don't give us our women and chillen!" That was

another voice, one that sounded entirely too excited. He heard a confused scuffle in the

background, and a yelp. He hoped it was from an adult.

"Now just a minute," Cavallo said. "We don't none of us want children hurt. Let's see what we can figure out here-" Someone held a display screen in front of him, with the message DATA DISPLAY AT TRAM STATION ACTIVE FOR OUR USE. "It's true your children aren't here anymore-and it's true I don't know where they are. You-what'd you say your name was?"

"Dan," said the older voice. "You kin call me Dan."

"Dan, I reckon you think children should be with their parents-"

"Yeah, that's right. So if our chillen ain't here, we wanta know where they've gone."

The vid scan was in, though distorted by the wide-angle lens. Scan specialists ran tests,

converting the image to a corrected 3-D version. Cavallo made himself ignore that, until they were

done, and someone moved a screen close to him so he could see it.

Now when Dan spoke, he could see the computer's best guess at the face-middle-aged, as he'd guessed, the face of someone who had taken difficult responsibility before.

"How'd you plan to get 'em away?"

"Steal a ship. We done it before."

"Good plan," Cavallo said, mentally crossing his fingers. He scribbled Find a small, cheap, simple

ship on the pad and handed it to the major.

"We kin just take these chillen instead, if ours is really gone."

"But it's not the same," Cavallo said. "And these children should be with their families."

"You offerin' to let us go?"

"Would you?"

"Might."

Cavallo watched the man put down the mike and turn away, talking to the others. He boosted the

audio pickup.

"You said they was here!" he heard one man say; he couldn't pick out features from the fish-eye view.

"That's the best word we had."

"I tell you, I'm gettin' sick of this. We come all the way from home, workin' like dogs on that damn ship, because you didn't want to spend the money for tickets, which would've been worth it if we'd killed the old buzzard, but we didn't, on account of somebody else beat us to the draw."

"It wasn't supposed to take that long-"

"And who picked out that ship? Then you say let's go get those kids back-and they're not even our

kids-and we have to work our passage again, comin' here, and when we get here they ain't. I don't know's I believe they ever have been."

"Ever'body in that bar said they was!"

"Ever'body in that bar was drunk, Dan. They ain't here, and they ain't been here, and what in Sam

Hill are we gonna do now?"

"I'll think of sumpin'-just give me a minute, will you?"

"We could take these kids-"

"Hell, Arnett, I don't want these kids. These ain't our kids, or Ranger kids. And what'd we take

'em in, anyway?"

"Well, what d'you want to do, give up and let them kill us like they did them Rangers?"

"We ain't done nothin' yet they'd kill us for."

"I ain't surrenderin' nothin'." That was Arnett, Cavallo could tell by his voice.

"Well, I'm not killin' any chillen." That was the one who had protested in the beginning. "Why

don't we trade 'em for a ship out of here?"

"A whole ship? You think godless heathen would give us a whole ship for just a bunch of chillen?

They don't care about chillen."

"How's it going?" the major asked. Cavallo sat back, still watching the vid.

"They're fighting over whose fault it is. If I understand them right, this bunch wanted to

assassinate Lord Thornbuckle, and when they found out someone else had, they decided to hunt up the women and children and capture them. I don't think they're NewTex Rangers; I think they're a bunch of idealistic fools that went off by themselves." He tapped the mike, and heads turned in the vid. Dan came over, almost reluctantly, to pick it up.

"Dan! Dan . . . listen. Are the children still all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine for now."

"Dan, the stationmaster tells me the women and children left eleven days ago on a passenger ship,

the Dolphin Rider."

On the vid, two of the other men threw up their hands, and one spat on the deck.

"Now I can't change that, Dan, but here's what I could do."

"What?"