red now--tired and sleepy--maybe the pain pills were
bringing the secondary form of relief. But he could hear, just beyond,
the man who beat at that unseen curtain, first in anger and fear, and
then just in fear, until the fear was a lonesome crying that went on
and on until even that last feeble assault on the barrier failed.

* * * * *

"We have here the tape report of Ras Hume, Out-Hunter of the Guild."

Vye watched the officer in the black and silver of the Patrol, a black
and silver modified with the small, green, eye badge of X-Tee, with
level and hostile gaze.

"Then you know the story." He was going to make no additions nor
explanations. Maybe Hume had cleared him. All right, that was all he
would ask, to be free to go his way and forget about Jumala--and Ras
Hume.

He had not seen the Hunter since they had both been loaded into the
Patrol flitter in the gap. Wass had come out of the valley a witless,
dazed creature, still under the mental influence of whoever, or
whatever, had set that trap. As far as Vye knew the Veep had not yet
recovered his full senses, he might never do so. And if Hume had not
dictated that confession to damn himself before the Patrol, he might
have escaped. They could suspect--but they would have had no proof.

"You continue to refuse to tape?" The officer favored him with one of
the closed-jaw looks Vye had often seen on the face of authority.

"I have my rights."

"You have the right to claim victim compensation--a good compensation,
Lansor."

Vye shrugged and then winced at a warning from the tender skin over
ribs.

"I make no claim, and no tape," he repeated. And he intended to go on
saying that as long as they asked him. This was the second visit in
two days and he was getting a little tired of it all. Perhaps he
should do as prudence dictated and demand to be returned to Nahuatl.
Only his odd, unexplainable desire to at least see Hume kept him from
making the request they would have to honor.

"You had better reconsider." Authority resumed.

"Rights of person--" Vye almost grinned as he recited that. For the
first time in his pushed-around life he could use that particular
phrase and make it stick. He thought there was a sour twist to the
officer's mouth, but the other still retained his impersonal tone as
he spoke into the intership com:

"He refused to make a tape."

Vye waited for the other's next move. This should mark the end of