It'd tickle me silly if it could be done," Delcamp smiled and was
perfectly frank, "But the man doesn't live that can do it. How would you
go about trying it?"

"Set your block solid."

Delcamp did so, and through that block--the supposedly impenetrable
shield of a Prime Operator--Garlock insinuated a probe. He did not crack
the screen or break it down by force; he neutralized and counter-phased,
painlessly and almost imperceptibly, its every component and layer.

* * *

"Like this," Garlock said, in the depths of the Margonian's mind.

"My God! You can do _that_?"

"If I tell her, this deep, to play ball or else, do you think she'd need
two treatments?"

"She certainly oughtn't to. This makes you Galactic Admiral, no
question. I'd thought, of course, of trying you out for Top Gunther, but
this settles that. We will support you, sir, wholeheartedly--and my
heartfelt thanks for coming here."

"I have your permission, then, to give Fao a little discipline when she
starts rocking the boat?"

"I wish you would, sir. I'm not too easy to get along with, I admit, but
I've tried to meet her a lot more than half-way. She's just too damned
cocky for _anybody's_ good."

"Check. I wish somebody would come along who could knock hell out of
Belle." Then, aloud, "Belle, Delcamp and I have the thing going. Do you
want in on it?"

Delcamp spoke to Fao, and the two women slowly, reluctantly, lowered
their shields to match those of the men.

"Your Galaxian shaking of the hands--handshake, I mean--is very good,"
Delcamp said, and he and Garlock shook vigorously.

Then the crossed pairs, and lastly the two girls--although neither put
much effort into the gesture.

"Snap out of it, Belle!" Garlock sent a tight-beamed thought. "She isn't
going to bite you!"

"She's been trying to, damn her, and I'm going to bite her right
back--see if I don't."

* * *

Garlock called the meeting to order and all four sat down. The
Tellurians lighted cigarettes and the others--who, to the Earthlings'
surprise, also smoked--assembled and lit two peculiar-looking things
half-way between pipe and cigarette. And both pairs of smokers, after a
few tentative tests, agreed in not liking at all the other's taste in
tobacco.

"You know, of course, of the trip we took yesterday?" Garlock asked.

"Yes," Delcamp admitted. "We read ComOff Flurnoy. We know of the seventy
planets, but nothing o