ood."

It was a simple rustic room to which they had been brought--a room in a
house seemingly of plaited straw. Crude furnishings were here--table and
chairs of Earth fashion, padded with stuffed mats. Woven matting was on
the floor. Through a broad latticed window the faint rose-light
outside--like a soft pastel twilight--filtered in, tinting the room with
a gentle glow. Thin drapes at the window stirred in a breath of
breeze--a warm wind from the hills, scented with the vivid blooms which
were everywhere.

It had been a brief walk from the space-globe. Lee had seen what seemed
a little village stretching off among the trees. There had been people
crowding to see the strangers--men, women and children, in simple crude
peasant garb--brief garments that revealed their pink-white bodies. They
babbled with strange unintelligible words, crowding forward until the
robed men from the globe shoved them away.

It was a pastoral, peaceful scene--a little country-side drowsing in the
warm rosy twilight. Out by the river there were fields where men stood
at their simple agricultural implements--stood at rest, staring
curiously at the commotion in the village.

And still Lee's captors would say nothing, merely drew them forward,
into this room. Then all of them left, save one. He had doffed his robe
now. He was an old man, with long grey-white hair to the base of his
neck. He stood smiling. His voice, with the English words queerly
pronounced, was gentle, but with a firm finality of command.

"My name is Arkoh," he said. "I am to see that you are made comfortable.
This house is yours. There are several rooms, so that you may do in them
as you wish."

"Thank you," Lee said. "But you can certainly understand--I have asked
many questions and never had any answers. If you wish to talk to me
alone--"

"That will come presently. There is no reason for you to be worried--"

"We're not worried," Franklin burst out. "We're fed up with this
highhanded stuff. You'll answer questions now. What I demand to know is
why--"

"Take it easy," Lee warned.

Franklin had jumped to his feet. He flung off Lee's hand. "Don't make me
laugh. I know you're one of them--everything about you is a fake. You
got us into this--"

"So? You would bring strife here from your Earth?" Arkoh's voice cut in,
like a knife-blade cleaving through Franklin's bluster. "That is not
permissible. Please do not make it necessary that there should be
violence here