rally involves at least some work, and what civilized man is going
to get himself involved with anything like that?"

"Insidious," Ruut whispered.

Curl turned away, but then hesitated and glanced back. "Still, since it
concerns the aliens--" He frowned pensively. "There is a scheme we've
never tried before that would probably cure him. I remember somebody
mentioned it about eight hundred years ago, and we decided to try it out
on the next case. Never did, though. Nobody was interested. It's sort of
uncivilized, but I'll bring it up and see what the Council thinks."

He nodded shortly, and evacuated to his own focus.

"Well, my boy," Ruut said to Tensor. "I'm going to miss you."

"There is no need to concern yourself over me, sir," Tensor replied
unemotionally. "It does not bother me in the slightest."

Ruut knew that to be the truth, but it made him feel sad to think of
such a highly civilized man as Tensor falling to a level that was even
below an administrator. Abruptly, he caught himself and readjusted the
endocrine balance in his own body to compensate for the character of his
thought, and the moody spell passed.

He left, and Tensor continued to stare unconsciously at the brilliant,
deep violet of the sky, noting without appreciation the jewel-like
points of light that were the stars.

* * * * *

The nego had to be recomposed twice in his body before Curl returned,
his long, unkempt, black beard floating gently around his ears.

"Tensor," he said gravely, "the Council has acted. It has been decided
not to order you to destroy yourself immediately, because I managed to
convince them that it would be interesting to try that old scheme I told
you about. I hope you don't mind."

Naturally there was no reply from Tensor. In his emotionless state, he
did not care one way or the other. He waited.

"At any rate," the physician continued, "what they did was order you to
satisfy this curiosity that is causing all your trouble.

"The reason, of course, isn't that the Council is interested in your
cure. But they do desire some coherent information about the aliens. And
since it is unlikely that anyone will ever volunteer to take the trouble
to investigate them on their own initiative, they felt your illness a
satisfactory excuse for requiring you to make the investigation."

"Yes sir."

Curl sighed. It was monotonous, this trying to carry on a conversation
with an unconscious ma