g from face to face,
"that they have a special tough technique for hard case trouble
makers." For those who knew him, the vague look was a veil over some
thought which pleased him. Presumably he was thinking the thing which
had occurred to them all.

* * * * *

The culprit might be a member of the Board. There was a sudden
cheerful interest visible among them as they wondered who was quarry
for the "tough treatment."

"I've heard of that," said Wan Lun, remembering. "It has been said
that they not only do not inform others of the fact of treatment but
frequently do not inform the man under treatment but seem to be only a
new friend until--poof." He smiled. "I think the guild name is Manoba.
The Manoba Group."

Stout said, "They'll probably charge enough for the skill."

Wan said, smiling, "I also heard some idle rumor that in a few such
cases discord within a group was alleviated by sudden suicide.
Presumably a psychologist can grow impatient and push a certain button
in the mind--"

"Sounds like a good idea," Beldman said. "Do you think if we offered
this Manoba the right kind of money--"

"You don't mean that, Mister Beldman," cut in the chairman
reprovingly. "You're joking again."

"We're all great jokers," said Beldman, and laughed.

Everyone laughed.

"I move we vote a sum for the hiring of a Manoba psychologist."

"Seconded, how about five hundred thousand?"

"I don't know their fees," the chairman objected cautiously.

"You can turn back any surplus. We stand to lose more than that by
several orders of magnitude. Spend it at your discretion."

"Make it seven hundred thousand. Give him a little more room."

"I so move."

"Seconded."

"Carry it to a vote."

They slipped their hands under the table edge before their respective
seats, and each man ran his fingers over two buttons concealed there,
before him, chose between the _yes_ and the _no_ button and pushed
one, the choice of his fingers unseen by the others.

Two numbers lit up on the small divided panel before the chairman. He
looked at them with his mild face expressionless. "Rejected by one
vote."

Unanimity was the law on Board decisions, which by a natural law was
probably the reason why no love was lost among them, but this time
irritation was curbed by interest. They sat watching each other's
expressions with glances which seemed casual. Whose was the one vote?

"I move that the vote be repeated