yd, placed him before the
communicator, and set it at voice-only transmission. This was familiar
enough, to Murgatroyd. He'd often seen Calhoun use a communicator.

"_Chee!_" shrilled Murgatroyd. "_Chee-chee!_"

A startled voice came out of the speaker.

"_What's that?_"

"_Chee_," said Murgatroyd zestfully.

The communicator was talking to him. Murgatroyd adored three things in
order. One was Calhoun. The second was coffee. The third was pretending
to converse like a human being. The speaker said explosively;

"_You there, identify yourself!_"

"_Chee-chee-chee-chee!_" observed Murgatroyd. He wriggled with pleasure
and added, reasonably enough, "_Chee!_"

The communicator bawled;

"_Calling ground! Calling ground! Listen to this! Something that ain't
human's talking at me on a communicator! Listen in an' tell me what to
do!_"

Murgatroyd interposed with another shrill;

"_Chee!_"

Then Calhoun pulled the Med Ship slowly away from the clump of
still-lifeless grain-ships. It was highly improbable that the guard-boat
would carry an electron telescope. Most likely it would have only an
echo-radar, and so could determine only that an object of some sort
moved of its own accord in space. Calhoun let the Med Ship accelerate.
That would be final evidence. The grain-ships were between Weald and its
sun. Even electron telescopes on the ground--and electron-telescopes
were ultimately optical telescopes with electronic amplification--even
electron telescopes on the ground could not get a good image of the ship
through sunlit atmosphere.

"_Chee?_" asked Murgatroyd solicitously. "_Chee-chee-chee?_"

"_Is it blueskins?_" shakily demanded the voice from the guard-boat.
"_Ground! Ground! Is it blueskins?_"

A heavy, authoritative voice came in with much greater volume.

"_That's no human voice_," it said harshly. "_Approach its ship and send
back an image. Don't fire first unless it heads for ground._"

The guard-ship swerved and headed for the Med Ship. It was still a very
long way off.

"_Chee-chee_," said Murgatroyd encouragingly.

Calhoun changed the Med Ship's course. The guard-ship changed course
too. Calhoun let it draw nearer,--but only a little. He led it away from
the fleet of grain-ships.

He swung his electron telescope on them. He saw a space-suited figure
outside one,--safely roped, however. It was easy to guess that someone
had meant to return to the Med Ship for orders or to make a report, and