### 264

You retrieve the Iron Skull from your pocket and offer it to the elder. He refuses to touch it and he indicates that you should toss it to the ground. You comply and it thuds into the soft earth near his feet. With one startlingly swift blow he strikes the Iron Skull with his staff and instantly it is transformed into an evil-smelling grey gas that rapidly dissipates in the warm, damp air.

The natives on the palisade take up their bows and train them on you. Quickly you protest your innocence to the elder, saying that you had no idea the skull was an evil artefact. For a few seconds he stares unnervingly into your eyes; then he turns to his kinsmen and says one word: ‘Truth!’

The Vakeros lower their bows and the elder indicates that you are now free to enter their village.

Turn to 347.