condition to be
interrogated."

"But, what ...?" the girl began, her voice puzzled.

"That's why you were attacked," he told her. "Keeluk was afraid to let
you get away from there alive to report hearing that dog, so he went
out and had a gang of thugs rounded up to kill you."

"But he was only gone five minutes."

"In five minutes, I can put all the troops in Konkrook into action.
Keeluk doesn't have radio or TV--we hope--but he has his forces
concentrated, and he has a pretty good staff."

"But Mr. Keeluk's a friend of ours. He knows what our Association is
trying to do for his people...."

"So he shows his appreciation by setting that mob on you. Look, he has
a lot of influence in that section. When you were attacked, why wasn't
he out trying to quiet the mob?"

"When they jumped you, you tried to get back into the house," M'zangwe
put in. "And you found the door barred against you."

"Yes, but...." The girl looked troubled; M'zangwe had guessed right.
"But what's all the excitement about the dog? What is it, the sacred
totem-animal of the Ullr Company?"

"It's just a big brown collie named Stalin. But somebody stole it, and
Keeluk was keeping it. We want to know why. We don't like geek
mysteries--not when they lead to murderous attacks on Terrans, at
least."

It seemed to satisfy her, as the aircar let down on the hospital
landing stage. But it didn't satisfy von Schlichten. He could smell
trouble brewing. Just what could the geeks do with a dog? Nothing, so
far as he could tell--but they didn't go in for such behaviour without
what they considered good reason. Good for them, that is!

III

Governor-General Sidney Harrington had a ruddy outdoors-man's face and
a ragged gray mustache; in his old tweed coat spotted with pipe ashes,
he might have been any of a dozen-odd country-gentlemen of von
Schlichten's boyhood in the Argentine. His face was composed enough
for the part, too. But beyond him in the governor's office,
Lieutenant-Governor Eric Blount matched von Schlichten's frown, his
sandy-haired and younger face puckered in worry.

"We picked up a few of Keeluk's goon-gang," von Schlichten was
reporting. "But I doubt if they'll tell us anything we don't already
know. The dog was gone, but we found where it had been kept; at least
one of the rabbits had been there, too. No trace of the goat. Anyhow,
the riot's been put down. The Kragans and some of King Jaikark's
infantry are patrolling th