uld be set upon and
endangered in the streets of the royal city."

"The soldiers of His Sublime and Ineffable Majesty came most promptly
to the aid of the troops of the Company, did they not, General von
Schlichten?" Harrington asked, solemn-faced.

"Within minutes, Your Excellency," von Schlichten replied gravely.
"Their promptness, valor and efficiency were most exemplary."

* * * * *

Gurgurk spoke at length, expressing himself as delighted, on behalf of
his royal master, at hearing such high praise from so distinguished a
soldier. Eric Blount contributed a short speech, beseeching the gods
that the deep and beautiful friendship existing between the Chartered
Ullr Company and His Sublime etcetera would continue unimpaired. The
Keegarkan Ambassador spoke his piece, expressing on behalf of King
Orgzild the deepest regret that the people of the Company should be so
molested, and managing to hint that things like that simply didn't
happen at Keegark.

The Prince Gorkrink then spoke briefly, in sympathy. Von Schlichten
noticed that a few of his more recent quartz-specks were slightly
greenish in tinge, a sure sign that he had, not long ago, been exposed
to the fluorine-tainted air which men and geeks alike breathed on
Niflheim. When a geek prince hired out as a laborer for a year on
Niflheim, he did so for only one purpose--to learn Terran
technologies.

Gurgurk then announced that so enormous a crime against the friends of
His Sublime etcetera had not been allowed to go unpunished, signalling
behind him with one of his lower hands for the box to be brought
forward. The slaves carried it to the front, set it down, and opened
it, taking from it a rug which they spread on the floor. On this, from
the box, they placed twenty-four newly severed opal-grinning heads, in
four neat rows. They had all been freshly scrubbed and polished, but
they still smelled like crushed cockroaches.

The three Terrans looked at them gravely. A double-dozen heads was
standard payment for an attack in which no Terran had been killed.
Ostensibly, they were the heads of the ringleaders; in practice, they
were usually lopped from the first two-dozen prisoners or overage
slaves at hand, without regard for whether the victims had ever heard
of the crime they were expiating.

There was another long speech from Gurgurk, with the nobles behind him
murmuring antiphonal agreement--standard procedure, for which there