will become of the shoonoon?"
he asked. "You, yourselves, say that we Terrans have no need for magic,
because the oomphel works magic for us. This is real. If the People get
the Oomphel Secret, how much need will they have for you shoonoon?"

Evidently that hadn't occurred to them before. There was a brief flurry
of whispered--whooshed, rather--conversation, and then they were silent
again. The eldest shoonoo said:

"We trust you, Mailsh Heelbare. You will do what is best for the People,
and you will not let us be thrown out like broken pots, either."

"No, I will not," he promised. "The Oomphel Secret will be given to you
shoonoon." He thought for a moment of Foxx Travis' joking remark about
the Kwannon Thaumaturgical Society. "You have been jealous of one
another, each keeping his own secrets," he said. "This must be put away.
You will all receive the Oomphel Secret equally, for the good of all the
People. You must all swear brotherhood, one with another, and later if
any other shoonoo comes to you for the secret, you must swear
brotherhood with him and teach it to him. Do you agree to this?"

The eldest shoonoo rose to his feet, begged leave, and then led the
others to the rear of the room, where they went into a huddle. They
didn't stay huddled long; inside of ten minutes they came back and took
their seats.

"We are agreed, Mailsh Heelbare," the spokesman said.

Edith Shaw was impressed, more than by anything else she had seen.
"Well, that was a quick decision!" she whispered.

"You have done well, Grandfathers. You will not be thrown out by the
People like broken pots; you will be greater among them than ever. I
will show you how this will be.

"But first, I must speak around the Oomphel Secret." He groped briefly
for a comprehensible analogy, and thought of a native vegetable, layered
like an onion, with a hard kernel in the middle. "The Oomphel Secret is
like a fooshkoot. There are many lesser secrets around it, each of which
must be peeled off like the skins of a fooshkoot and eaten. Then you
will find the nut in the middle."

"But the nut of the fooshkoot is bitter," somebody said.

He nodded, slowly and solemnly. "The nut of the fooshkoot is bitter," he
agreed.

They looked at one another, disquieted by his words. Before anybody
could comment, he was continuing:

"Before this secret is given, there are things to be learned. You would
not understand it if I gave it to you now. You believe many