ods with a silver halo. Why?"

Sal Karone stood by with a look of horror on his face, but Venor made no
sign of alarm at this forbidden question. He merely inclined his held
slowly and repeated, "How was the wild dog tamed, and a saddle put upon
the fierce stallion?"

* * * * *

That was the end of the interview. The Ids insisted, however, that he
inspect the rest of the village and they personally guided the Terrans
on the tour. Cameron's trained eye took in at a glance, however, the
evidence supporting his previous conclusion. The artifacts and buildings
demonstrated a primitive forest culture. The other individuals he saw
were almost entirely the old and very young--the ones unsuitable as
servants to the Markovians. Venor explained that family life among them
paralleled in general that of the Masters. Whole Idealist families lived
and served as units in the Markovian household. Exceptions existed in
the case of Sal Karone and others of his age who were separated from
their families and had not yet begun their own.

As they returned to the car Venor took their hands. He pressed Cameron's
warmly and looked into his eyes with deep sincerity. "You have made us
glad by your presence," he said. "And when the time comes for you to
return, we shall repay all the pleasure you have given us."

"I'm afraid we won't be able to do that," said Cameron. "We appreciate
your hospitality, but I'm sure time will not permit us to visit you
again, as much as we'd like to." In the past few minutes he had reached
the conclusion that further research on this whole planet was futile.
The best thing they could do was go somewhere else in the Nucleus and
make a fresh start.

Venor shook his head, smiling. "We will see each other again, Joyce and
Cameron. I feel that the day will be very soon."

It was senseless to let himself be irritated by the senile patriarch who
spoke out of a world of illusion but Cameron could not help feeling
nettled as he started back to the city. Somehow it seemed impossible to
regard Venor as merely a specimen for sociological research. The Chief
of the Idealists reached out of his unreal world and made his contact
with the Terrans a personal thing--almost as if he had spent all his
life waiting for their coming. There was a sense of intimacy against
which Cameron rebelled, and yet it was not an unpleasant thing.

Cameron's mind oscillated between the annoyance of Venor's calm