From his vantage point atop the hillock, Daggerfjord could indeed see much, and there was much to be seen, and what could be seen in no way illuminated the shadowy nature of the cryptic occurences. For Daggerfjord could not have been aware that on the other side of the world, even now, the chess pieces were being moved yet again. For, atop the dusty brown treeless pinacles of Andoraco, upon the crumbling parapets of a citadel fortress that once guarded the frontier between Andoracco and Mondora, a twisted thin figure in turban walked alongside a great hulking bear-like man in a cowboy hat.

"This bidness makes me a might uneasy Sultan Zhpat." The Burly man was sating as he practiced his quick draw. "I reckon there's no way ta know fo' sure that this here Rompkins fella ain't gonna give that thar talk o' his and wesun's be in a might bit a trubble. "

"If you may take some advice Mr. Bigoyle, I think you have spent too much time in the hot Texas sun." Zhpat's gnarled hands tightened on the end of his cane. He stopped and raised it as high as Bigoyle's navel. "We have a saying here in Andoraco. Never let a monkey share your underwear. Though we have no Monkeys in Andoraco, indeed other than scorpions, flies, tarantulas, and the deadly spitting asp we have no wildlife at all, I do believe the saying is very true."

The Texan looked perplexed and he pushed up the brim of his hat with the muzzle of his colt 45. "Wuz it s'pose to mean, Sultan?"

"It means, my lone-star friend, that a wise man keeps the better part to himself. I can not tell you all my plans."

Bigoyle seemed to grow a foot taller and his hat a gallon bigger. "Is you callin' me a monkey?"

"Be at peace. Even if he does give that speech, which I do not believe he will survive long enough to deliver... but even if he did, other operations are proceeding. You see in Andoracco we have a saying, 'never spit unless you are standing.'

"We sayin summin like dat in Texas, 'never piss up wind.'"

"Yes, I have heard of that. Have you heard the Andoracan saying 'It is easier to peel a locust's wings before you eat it than after?'"

Bigoyle scratched hi stemple with the muzzle of his six shooter than holstered it. "Reckon not. Butl let's jus say that I'll be a might happier when the last Inuit is pushin' up icicles and we can move ahead wid our plan to turn all of the great white north into a giant cariboo shootin' oil drillin' bay seal clubbin' ponderosa."

Zhpat resumed his walk. "And I will be equally satisfied when you deliver to me the secret nerve agent XZ-27."