es," Sria said a little breathlessly.

"I was thinking--"

"What?" Sria said. "Don't stop."

"If we wanted to examine one of the boxes, it would be suicide to open
the one we take. But we could open one of them down here, see what it
is, take another for ourselves--"

"You would do this?" Sria asked him. "Why?"

Pandit shrugged. "I have eyes," he said. "Our gurus did not broadcast
the death-wish to outworlders until the Denebians came. Then they
started. Have the Denebians sold them on the idea?"

"I don't know," Sria said.

"Well, let's assume they have. Why? Why would they do such a thing,
Sria?"

* * * * *

"Let me get this straight, Pandit. First, you think the gurus actually
are making the outworlders kill themselves?"

"Of course," Pandit said. "It's mental suggestion, on a scale only our
gurus are capable of. But don't you see, Sria, they wouldn't do it on
their own. The gurus are dirty, careless about their bodies--but
terribly arrogant. Left alone, they wouldn't think the outworlders
important enough to be concerned over one way or another. They certainly
wouldn't kill them."

"Go on," Sria urged.

"All right. The gurus have great knowledge of the mystical, but
externally they're naive. Let's suppose someone came along--the
Denebians in this case--and found something they wanted very badly on
Ophiuchus. These crates here, Sria. What would they do? They'd go to the
gurus and convince them--it wouldn't be difficult--that any intercourse
with outworlders would be harmful to Ophiuchus, that the outworlders
want to colonize and exploit our world, that sort of thing. While the
gurus are stewing it over, the Denebians could have prepared this
shipment here--whatever it is--for departure. But the gurus, too well
convinced by them, could have acted sooner than they expected, making it
all but impossible for the small handful of outworlders, the Denebians
among them, to go abroad without fear of taking their own lives. Perhaps
a few, like Orkap and that other Denebian, are not at all suicide-prone.
Perhaps a few can withstand it. As for the rest, it's indoors and away
from the mental influence of the gurus, or off Ophiuchus entirely. Which
would leave the Denebians with a problem they hadn't thought of." His
words made sense.

"Yes!" cried Sria excitedly. "Now that they have their valuable cargo
ready to go, how can they get it off Ophiuchus without help?"

"We," said Pan