g."

The Black Doctor nodded. "And that, of course, is the reason I had to
see you before this interview, my friend. I know you've played the game
straight right from the beginning, up to this point. Now I beg of you
not to do the thing that you are thinking of doing."

For a moment Dal just stared at the little old man in black, and felt
the fur on his arms and back rise up. A wave of panic flooded his mind.
_He knows!_ he thought frantically. _He must be able to read minds!_ But
he thrust the idea away. There was no way that the Black Doctor could
know. No race of creatures in the galaxy had _that_ power. And yet there
was no doubt that Black Doctor Arnquist knew what Dal had been thinking,
just as surely as if he had said it aloud.

Dal shook his head helplessly. "I ... I don't know what you mean."

"I think you do," Doctor Arnquist said. "Please, Dal. Trust me. This is
not the time to lie. The thing that you were planning to do at the
interview would be disastrous, even if it won you an assignment. It
would be dishonest and unworthy."

_Then he does know!_ Dal thought. _But how? I couldn't have told him, or
given him any hint._ He felt Fuzzy give a frightened shiver on his arm,
and then words were tumbling out of his mouth. "I don't know what you're
talking about, there wasn't anything I was thinking of. I mean, what
could I do? If the council wants to assign me to a ship, they will, and
if they don't, they won't. I don't know what you're thinking of."

"Please." Black Doctor Arnquist held up his hand. "Naturally you defend
yourself," he said. "I can't blame you for that, and I suppose this is
an unforgivable breach of diplomacy even to mention it to you, but I
think it must be done. Remember that we have been studying and observing
your people very carefully over the past two hundred years, Dal. It is
no accident that you have such a warm attachment to your little pink
friend here, and it is no accident that wherever a Garvian is found, his
Fuzzy is with him, isn't that so? And it is no accident that your people
are such excellent tradesmen, that you are so remarkably skillful in
driving bargains favorable to yourselves ... that you are in fact the
most powerful single race of creatures in the whole Galactic
Confederation."

The old man walked to the bookshelves behind him and brought down a
thick, bound manuscript. He handed it across the desk as Dal watched
him. "You may read this if you like, at your leis