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.

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