ot stand the, to
them, terrible cold of the Darklands. Instead, they moved back and
forth with the Blue Sun and remained in their own area--a hot, dry,
fiery-bright hinterland occupied only by gnurrs, gpoles, and other
horrendous beasts.

Beyond those areas, according to the robot patrols which had
reconnoitered there, nothing lived. Nothing could. No protoplasmic
being could exist under the direct rays of the Blue Sun. Even the
metal-and-translite bodies of a robot wouldn't long protect the
sensitive mechanisms within from the furnace heat of the huge star.

Each species had its niche in the World. Some, like the hurkle, lived
in swamp water. Others lived in lakes and streams. Still others flew
in the skies or roamed the surface or climbed the great trees. Some,
like Dodeth's own people, lived beneath the surface.

The one thing an intelligent species had to be most careful about was
not to disturb the balance with their abilities, but to work to
preserve it. In the past, there had been those who had built cities on
the surface, but the cities had removed the natural growth from large
areas, which, in turn, had forced the city people to import their food
from outside the cities. And that had meant an enforced increase in
the cultivation of the remaining soil, which destroyed the habitats of
other animals, besides depleting the soil itself. The only sensible
way was to live _under_ the farmlands, so that no man was ever more
than a few hundred feet from the food supply. The Universal Motivator
had chosen that their species should evolve in burrows beneath the
surface, and if that was the niche chosen for Dodeth's people, then
that was obviously where they should remain to keep the Balance.

Of course, the snith, too, was an underground animal, though the
tunnels were unlined. The snith's tunnels ran between and around the
armored tunnels of Dodeth's people, so that each city surrounded the
other without contact--if the burrows of the snith could properly be
called a city.

"Yerdeth Pell's residence," said Ardan.

"Ah, yes." Dodeth, his thoughts interrupted, slid off the back of
the robot and flexed his legs. "Wait here, Ardan. I'll be back in an
hour or so." Then he scrambled over to the door which led to Yerdeth's
apartment.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later, Yerdeth Pell looked up from the data book
facsimiles and scanned Dodeth's face with appraising eyes.