MSGID: 2:221/6.0 610bc15e   
   PID: SmapiNNTPd/Linux/IPv6 1.3 20210704   
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   TZUTC: 0300   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2021-08-03   
   I am still not entirely comfortable with reported speech in   
   English. Consider, for example, the following fragment from   
   a later Conan novel:   
      
   Conan to Publio:   
     I want to know if a Zingaran named Beloso, or he might call   
     himself anything, is in this city. He's tall and lean and dark   
     like all his race, and it's likely he'll seek to sell a very rare   
     jewel.   
      
   Publio to spies (later):   
     Send your men into the markets and wharfside dives and learn if   
     one Beloso, a Zingaran, is in Messantia. Conan said he had a gem,   
     which he will probably seek to dispose of.   
      
   Publio back-shifted `have' into `had', but kept the present tense of   
   `will'*. Why? If Conan's information about Beloso's posession of the   
   gem deserves a degree of remotentess exressed by the past tense,   
   why not give like treatment to his words about the intent of Beloso   
   to sell it, i.e.:   
      
     Conan said he had a gem, which he would probably seek to dispse   
     of.   
      
   * I here treat `will' as a verb in the present tense,   
     and `would' as its past form. Your terminology may vary.   
   ---    
    * Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)   
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