't exactly a gregarious lot."

"Maybe this is the beginning of a new era. First meeting of the Kwannon
Thaumaturgical Society."

A couple more K.N.I. privates came in with serving-tables on
contragravity floats and began passing bowls of a frozen native-food
delicacy of which all Kwanns had become passionately fond since its
introduction by the Terrans. He let them finish, and then, after they
had been relieved of the empty bowls, he nodded to the K.N.I. sergeant,
who opened a door on the left. They all went through into the room they
had been seeing in the screen. There was a stir when the shoonoon saw
him, and he heard his name, in its usual native mispronunciation,
repeated back and forth.

"You all know me," he said, after they were seated. "Have I ever been an
enemy to you or to the People?"

"No," one of them said. "He speaks for us to the other Terrans. When we
are wronged, he tries to get the wrongs righted. In times of famine he
has spoken of our troubles, and gifts of food have come while the
Government argued about what to do."

[Illustration]

He wished he could see Edith Shaw's face.

"There was a sickness in our village, and my magic could not cure it,"
another said. "Mailsh Heelbare gave me oomphel to cure it, and told me
how to use it. He did this privately, so that I would not be made to
look small to the people of the village."

And that had infuriated EETA; it was a question whether unofficial help
to the natives or support of the prestige of a shoonoo had angered them
more.

"His father was a trader; he gave good oomphel, and did not cheat.
Mailsh Heelbare grew up among us; he took the Manhood Test with the boys
of the village," another oldster said. "He listened with respect to the
grandfather-stories. No, Mailsh Heelbare is not our enemy. He is our
friend."

"And so I will prove myself now," he told them. "The Government is angry
with the People, but I will try to take their anger away, and in the
meantime I am permitted to come here and talk with you. Here is a chief
of soldiers, and one of the Government people, and your words will be
heard by the oomphel machine that remembers and repeats, for the
Governor and the Great Soldier Chief."

They all brightened. To make a voice recording was a wonderful honor.
Then one of them said:

"But what good will that do now? The Last Hot Time is here. Let us be
permitted to return to our villages, where our people need us."

"It is of that t