Lee!" even the two strangers
produce sympathetic grins; I do not find it so funny as all that
myself.

"Ideas as to the form the 'outsider' should take were more varied.
This is a matter I propose to leave you to work out together, with the
assistance of Colonel Delano-Smith and Mr. Yardo. Te Whangoa, you
take the chair."

Exit M'Clare.

* * * * *

This leaves the two halves of the table eying one another. Ram and
Peter have been through this kind of session in their time; now they
are leaning back preparing to watch us work. It is plain we are
supposed to impress the abilities of Russett near-graduates on the two
strangers, and for some moments we are all occupied taking them in.
Colonel Delano-Smith is a small, neat guy with a face that has all the
muscular machinery for producing an expression; he just doesn't care
to use it. Mr. Yardo is taller than any of us except Eru and flesh is
spread very thin on his bones, including his face which splits now and
then in a grin like an affable skeleton. Where the colonel fits is
guessable enough, Mr. Yardo is presumably Expert at something but no
data on _what_.

Eru rests his hands on the table and says we had better start; will
somebody kindly outline an idea for making the Incognitans "gang up"?
The simpler the better and it does not matter whether it is workable
or not; pulling it to pieces will give us a start.

We all wait to see who will rush in; then I catch Eru's eye and see I
am elected Clown again. I say "Send them a letter postmarked Outer
Space signed BEM saying we lost our own planet in a nova and will take
over theirs two weeks from Tuesday."

Mr. Yardo utters a sharp "Ha! Ha!" but it is not seconded; the
colonel having been expressionless all along becomes more so; Eru
says, "Thank you, Lizzie." He looks across at Cray who is opposite me;
Cray says there are many points on which he might comment; to take
only one, two weeks from Tuesday leaves little time for 'ganging up',
and what happens when the BEMs fail to come?

We are suddenly back in the atmosphere of a seminar; Eru's glance
moves to P. Zapotec sitting next to Cray, and he says, "These BEMs who
lost their home planet in a nova, how many ships have they? Without a
base they cannot be very dangerous unless their fleet is very large."

It goes round the table.

Pavel: "How would BEMs learn to write?"

Nick: "How are they supposed to know that Incognita is inhab