Duncan's abilities and aptness quickly singled him out as one of the few who would be trained in the multiple skills of a sword-master. He demonstrated extraordinary pro- ficiencies and, prior to the War of Assassins, he had far outstripped his contemporaries and most of his teachers. Caught up in the War of Assassins between House Ginaz and House Montam shortly after his graduation, he energetically threw himself into combat, partially to ease the sorrow of having not been returned to House Atreides. Decades after his death, troubadors related his exploits, and it is still sung that he was finally captured only through the craven use of a hunter-seeker armed with a soporific. With everyone in his patrol dead, he stood with his back to the door while the Ginaz family attempted to escape, defying the finest swordsmen of Grumman. The ballads tell that he slew eighteen before the hunter-seeker finally took him. After his capture, he was a slave on Grumman with his keepers hoping that he IDAHO, DUNCAN IDAHO DUNCAN could be used as a trainer However, his constant escape attempts, his disruption of even the most sophisticated imprisonments, and his tactics! leadership of three slave revolts forced his sale to House Harkonnen in 10180, when he was twenty-two years old Again, Duncan demonstrated that his desire for freedom and a return to House Atreides overcame my value his skills had to the Harkonnens Like other mcomgibles, he was condemned to the mines on Hagal, almost always a death sentence The&e mines, a minor CHOAM feif, had been largely exhausted of their jewels during the reign of Shaddam I The Harkonnens were attempting to gather what little profit remained and could do so only by operating at the lowest cost The conditions were savage, with the stave mortality rate over sixty percent Duncan survived the darkness and the starvation for over three years He had evidently learned subtlety from his unsuccessful escape attempts on Grumman, and in 10184, through a series of bribes paid with hoarded jewels and the seduction of the daughter of die Harkonnen governor, he was able to send a message to CaJadan and escape with the girl into Hagal's vast veldt Six months later, Idaho was found by aa Atreides commando force led by Gurney Halkck Duncan was heralded as a hero on his return to Caladan, and the large expense involved in his rescue demonstrated his value to the Atreides and the reality of the Atreides boast that they took care of their own Duncan reciprocated with absolute loyalty In die Atreides he saw his origins, his life, and his resurrection He brought to them a personal integrity and an inherent morality that would continue to be of value to the God Emperor himself Idaho was a military genius, and his training as a swordmaster enabled him not only to plan military campaigns but also repair force shields, create linguistically complex battle languages, design military support facilities, and improvise weapons His greatest long-range contribution to House Atreides, however, was his training of the young Paul Atreides, or as Duncan was fond of calling him, "young.