t was proposed to build
an outpost of Weald there, against blueskins. Cattle were landed to run
wild and multiply and make a reason for colonists to settle there. They
did, but nobody wants to move nearer to blueskins! So Orede stayed
uninhabited until a hunting-party shooting wild cattle found an
outcropping of heavy-metal ore. So now there's a mine there. And that's
all. A few hundred men work the mine at fabulous wages. You may be asked
to check on their health. But not Dara's!"

"I see," said Calhoun, frowning.

The doctor moved toward the Med Ship's exit-port.

"I answered your questions," he said grimly. "But if I talked to anyone
else as I've done to you, I'd be lucky only to be driven into exile!"

"I shan't give you away," said Calhoun. He did not smile.

When the doctor had gone, Calhoun said deliberately;

"Murgatroyd, you should be grateful that you're a _tormal_ and not a
man. There's nothing about being a _tormal_ to make you ashamed!"

Then he grimly changed his garments for the full-dress uniform of the
Med Service. There was to be a banquet at which he would sit next to the
planet's chief executive and hear innumerable speeches about the
splendor of Weald. Calhoun had his own, strictly Med Service opinion of
the planet's latest and most boasted-of achievement. It was a domed city
in the polar regions, where nobody ever had to go outdoors. He was less
than professionally enthusiastic about the moving streets, and much less
approving of the dream-broadcasts which supplied hypnotic,
sleep-inducing rhythms to anybody who chose to listen to them. The price
was that while asleep one would hear high praise of commercial products,
and one might believe them when awake.

But it was not Calhoun's function to criticize when it could be avoided.
Med Service had been badly managed in Sector Twelve. So at the banquet
Calhoun made a brief and diplomatic address in which he temperately
praised what could be praised, and did not mention anything else.

The chief executive followed him. As head of the government he paid some
tribute to the Med Service. But then he reminded his hearers proudly of
the high culture, splendid health, and remarkable prosperity of the
planet since his political party took office. This, he said, was in
spite of the need to be perpetually on guard against the greatest and
most immediate danger to which any world in all the galaxy was exposed.
He referred to the blueskins, of course. He