and Karffard and some
of the others. Somebody instantly said:

"That temple stuff came from Chermosh. They're Buddhists, there.
That checks with the Gilgamesher's story."

"He got the furs on Imhotep; he traded for them," Harkaman said.
"Nobody gets anything off Imhotep by raiding. The planet's in the
middle of a glaciation, the land surface down to the fiftieth
parallel is iced over solid. There is one city, ten or fifteen
thousand, and the rest of the population is scattered around in
settlements of a couple of hundred all along the face of the
glaciers. They're all hunters and trappers. They have some
contragravity, and when a ship comes in, they spread the news by
radio and everybody brings his furs to town. They use telescope
sights, and everybody over ten years old can hit a man in the head
at five hundred yards. And big weapons are no good; they're too well
dispersed. So the only way to get anything out of them is to trade
for it."

"I think I know where he was," Alvyn Karffard said. "On Imhotep,
silver is a monetary metal. On Agni, they use silver for sewer-pipe.
Agni is a hot-star planet, class B-3 sun. And on Agni they are
tough, and they have good weapons. That could be where the
_Enterprise_ took that combat damage."

That started an argument as to whether he'd gone to Chermosh first.
It was sure that he had gone to Agni and then Imhotep. Guatt Kirbey
tried to figure both courses.

"It doesn't tell us anything, either way," he said at length. "Chermosh
is away off to the side from Agni and Imhotep in either case."

"Well, he does have a base, somewhere, and it's not on any
Terra-type planet," Valkanhayn said. "Otherwise, what would he want
with all that air-and-water and hydroponic and carniculture stuff?"

The Old Federation area was full of non-Terra-type planets, and why
should anybody bother going to any of them? Any planet that wasn't
oxygen-atmosphere, six to eight thousand miles in diameter, and
within a narrow surface-temperature range, wasn't worth wasting time
on. But a planet like that, if one had the survival equipment, would
make a wonderful hideout.

"What sort of a captain is this Teodor Vaghn?" he asked. "A good
one," Harkaman said promptly. "He has a nasty streak--sadistic--but
he knows his business and he has a good ship and a well-trained
crew. You think he and Dunnan have teamed up?"

"Don't you? I think, now that he has a base, Dunnan is getting
a fleet together."

"He'll