s. More accurately, it was as if an instantaneous smooth flow
of information relevant to whatever he said arose continuously from
what might have been almost her own memory, but wasn't. Within a
minute or two, she knew more about the crest cats of Jontarou than Dr.
Droon could have told her in hours ... much more than he'd ever known.

She realized suddenly that he'd stopped talking, that he had asked her
a question. "Miss Amberdon?" he repeated now, with a note of
uncertainty.

"Yar-rrr-REE!" Telzey told him softly. "I'll drink your blood!"

"Eh?"

Telzey blinked, focused on Dr. Droon, wrenching her mind away from a
splendid view of the misty-blue peaks of the Baluit range.

"Sorry," she said briskly. "Just a joke!" She smiled. "Now what were
you saying?"

The zoologist looked at her in a rather odd manner for a moment. "I
was inquiring," he said then, "whether you were familiar with the
sporting rules established by the various hunting associations of the
Hub in connection with the taking of game trophies?"

Telzey shook her head. "No, I never heard of them."

* * * * *

The rules, Dr. Droon explained, laid down the type of equipment ...
weapons, spotting and tracking instruments, number of assistants, and
so forth ... a sportsman could legitimately use in the pursuit of any
specific type of game. "Before the end of the first year after their
discovery," he went on, "the Baluit crest cats had been placed in the
ultra-equipment class."

"What's ultra-equipment?" Telzey asked.

"Well," Dr. Droon said thoughtfully, "it doesn't quite involve the use
of full battle armor ... not quite! And, of course, even with that
classification the sporting principle of mutual accessibility must be
observed."

"Mutual ... oh, I see!" Telzey paused as another wave of silent
information rose into her awareness; went on, "So the game has to be
able to get at the sportsman too, eh?"

"That's correct. Except in the pursuit of various classes of flying
animals, a shikari would not, for example, be permitted the use of an
aircar other than as means of simple transportation. Under these
conditions, it was soon established that crest cats were being
obtained by sportsmen who went after them at a rather consistent
one-to-one ration."

Telzey's eyes widened. She'd gathered something similar from her other
information source but hadn't quite believed it. "One hunter killed
for each cat bagged?" she