ne, and it was even more incredible that men and
everything else--except perhaps Relegar--would yield to its will.
Will, of course, was the key factor. Will was dominant and men obeyed.

* * * * *

Grant held out the echindul stone. "This is one of a pair," he said.
"I found the other one too."

"You have just come back from the Red Lava Range," said the whistling
voice. "How many pairs did you find?"

Grant stared at the butterfly. Some thought the Jovians could read
minds. Grant wondered. Then he decided to be honest. "Sixteen."

Netse's wings quit moving for a minute. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to assure me safe passage to your office. I will give you
three-fourths of them," Grant blurted. He had not meant to make an
offer like that. He had intended to let Netse ask but the delicacy of
his situation hit him abruptly and fully and he was weighed down with
sudden desperation.

"How can you find the others?" asked Netse.

"I--" Grant got cautious. "I have provided for that."

The butterfly fluttered to the top of the dome and hung upside down
for a moment. Then the whistling came again. "I am sorry. I do not see
where I can be of any assistance."

Grant was stunned. He held out both hands. "But--"

The lights went out. The Earthman was at his side, leading him out. He
was given his heat-gun. "But what--why?--I don't understand," Grant
said, bewildered.

His escort looked at him, opened his mouth, and showed Grant he was
tongueless. He positioned Grant on the square and a moment later Grant
was back on the sidewalk.

Discouragement was on him like a great weight. It deadened him. It
smothered him. He paced the streets and eventually found himself
before a restaurant. He remembered then that he had not eaten for a
long time. He went in and ordered oysters. That was about the only
meat you could buy in The Pass and be sure of not eating some sentient
being. Then, waiting, he sat in a booth with his head between his
hands.

It was apparent they didn't want him to have any part of his
stones--the stones he had spent six months and risked his life
for--the stones that meant so much to him and to Beth. They wanted all
of his stones. The dirty Shylocks. They weren't willing to take half,
or two-thirds, or three-fourths. They wanted all. They weren't willing
for him to have any part of them. He would have settled for ten per
cent, which would have been over fifty th