c problem, those
idiots on Orede--. It'd happened before I reached Weald! An emotional
explosion triggered by a ship full of dead men that nobody intended to
kill."

Maril shook her head.

* * * * *

"Those Darian characters," said Calhoun annoyedly, "shouldn't have gone
to Orede in the first place. If they went there, they should at least
have stayed on a continent where there were no people from Weald digging
a mine and hunting cattle for sport on their off days! They could be
spotted! I believe they were! And again, if it had been a long way from
the mine installation, they could probably have wiped out the people who
sighted them before they could get back with the news! But it looks like
miners saw men hunting, and got close enough to see they were blueskins,
and then got back to the mine with the news!"

She waited for him to explain.

"I know I'm guessing, but it fits!" he said distastefully. "So something
had to be done. Either the mining settlement had to be wiped out or the
story that blueskins were on Orede had to be discredited. The blueskins
tried for both. They used panic-gas on a herd of cattle and it made them
crazy and they charged the settlement like the four-footed lunatics they
are! And the blueskins used panic-gas on the settlement itself as the
cattle went through. It should have settled the whole business nicely.
After it was over every man in the settlement would believe he'd been
out of his head for a while, and he'd have the crazy state of the
settlement to think about, and he wouldn't be sure of what he'd seen or
heard beforehand. They might try to verify the blueskin story later, but
they wouldn't believe anything certainly! It should have worked!"

Again she waited. So Calhoun said very wrily indeed;

"Unfortunately, when the miners panicked, they stampeded into the ship.
Also unfortunately, panic-gas got into the ship with them. So they
stayed panicked while the astrogator--in panic!--took off and headed for
Weald and threw on the overdrive--which would be set for Weald
anyhow--because that would be the fastest way to run away from whatever
he imagined he feared. But he and all the men on the ship were still
crazy with panic from the gas they were re-breathing until they died!"

Silence. After a long interval, Maril asked;

"You don't think the--Darians intended to kill?"

"I think they were stupid!" said Calhoun angrily. "Somebody's always
urging