Bel-Heshti came from the wrong side of Nineveh. His family, a clan of half-shekel exorcists and nostrum peddlers, were always in trouble with the city law. Bel-Heshti stood half-a-cubit taller than most men in the troop. He had a squint and a large hairy nose and the general aspect of a man who enjoyed doing terrible things with a sledgehammer.