those Kwanns
from Qualpha's and Darshat's you brought here and Paul put to work?"

Gonzales looked at Travis and then said: "Not with me. Not yet, anyhow."

"They've been at General Maith," Travis said shortly. After a moment,
he added: "General Maith supports General Gonzales completely; that's
for publication. I'm authorized to say so. What else was there to do?
They'd burned their villages and all their food stores. They had to be
placed somewhere. And why in the name of reason should they sit around
in the shade eating Government native-type rations while Paul Sanders
has fifty to a hundred thousand sols' worth of crystals dying on him?"

"Yes; that's another thing they'll scream about. Paul's making a profit
out of it."

"Of course he's making a profit," Gonzales said. "Why else is he running
a plantation? If planters didn't make profits, who'd grow biocrystals?"

"The Colonial Government. The same way they built those storm-shelters.
But that would be in the public interest, and if the Kwanns weren't
public-spirited enough to do the work, they'd be made to--at about half
what planters like Sanders are paying them now. But don't you realize
that profit is sordid and dishonest and selfish? Not at all like drawing
a salary-cum-expense-account from the Government."

"You're right, it isn't," Gonzales agreed. "People like Paul Sanders
have ability. If they don't, they don't stay in business. You have
ability and people who don't never forgive you for it. Your very
existence is a constant reproach to them."

"That's right. And they can't admit your ability without admitting their
own inferiority, so it isn't ability at all. It's just dirty underhanded
trickery and selfish ruthlessness." He thought for a moment. "How did
Government House find out about these Kwanns here?"

"The Welfare Commission had people out while I was still setting up
headquarters," Gonzales said. "That was about oh-seven-hundred."

"This isn't for publication?" Travis asked. "Well, they know, but they
can't prove, that our given reason for moving in here in force is false.
Of course, we can't change our story now; that's why the
situation-progress map that was prepared for publication is incorrect as
to the earlier phases. They do not know that it was you who gave us our
first warning; they ascribe that to Sanders. And they are claiming that
there never was any swarming; according to them, Sanders' natives are
striking for better pay and