u haven't found out yet. For one thing,
we understand ourselves, and you, better than you do. We've some
technical gadgets you haven't happened on yet. However, it's entirely
possible for you to easily kill the four of us here tonight. If you
do--you do. But there are others of our race here. That's point two."

"Now come the threats and demands," said Coburn.

"Perhaps." But Dillon seemed to hesitate. "Dammit, Coburn, you're a
reasonable man. Try to think like us a moment. What would you do if
you'd started to explore space and came upon a civilized race, as we
have?"

Coburn said formidably, "We'd study them and try to make friends."

"In that order," said Dillon instantly. "That's what we've tried to do.
We disguised ourselves as you because we wanted to learn how to make
friends before we tried. But what did we find, Coburn? What's your
guess?"

"You name it!" said Coburn.

"You Earth people," said Dillon, "are at a turning-point in your
history. Either you solve your problems and keep on climbing, or you'll
blast your civilization down to somewhere near a caveman level and have
to start all over again. You know what I mean. Our two more spectacular
interferences dealt with it."

"The Iron Curtain," said Coburn. "Yes. But what's that got to do with
you? It's none of your business. That's ours."

* * * * *

"But it _is_ ours," said Dillon urgently. "Don't you see, Coburn?
You've a civilization nearly as advanced as ours. If we can make
friends, we can do each other an infinite lot of good. We can complement
each other. We can have a most valuable trade, not only in goods, but in
what you call human values and we call something else. We'd like to
start that trade.

"But you're desperately close to smashing things. So we've had to rush
things. We did stop that Bulgarian raid. When you proved too sharp to be
fooled, we grew hopeful. Here might be our entering wedge. We hammered
at you. We managed to make your people suspicious that there might be
something in what you said. We proved it. It was rugged for you, but we
had to let you people force us into the open. If we'd marched out shyly
with roses in our hair--what would you have thought?"

Coburn said doggedly: "I'm still waiting for the terms. What do you
want?"

The General said something plaintive from his chair. It was to the
effect that Coburn still believed that Earth was in danger of conquest
from space.

"Look!"