so well screened that even at the risk of
burning this unit out, we were not able to project powerfully enough to
do more than merely touch your brain--"

* * * * *

There was a strange calm in his mind, now. He understood the words
and accepted them as matter-of-factly as they were given. Even now
they were manipulating him like some intangible puppet, yet he was
convinced it was not a malevolent manipulation. Convinced. The
conviction--manipulation, too....

"Only partly, Earthman. We said we are friendly, and we are. We have
calmed you and erased your fear. From this point on, we will use this
instrument only for communication."

And then he felt the fear in him again, gnawing, and his body was again
damp and cold. But he had control, now. Control enough to speak.

They stood before him, immobile, watching.

Somewhere, Johnny Love found his voice.

"Look, I've been through this 'friendly' act before...." He hesitated,
and they did not try to interrupt him. "Well don't just stand there!"
The fear was suddenly turning to the bitter anger of frustration, they
had him whipped, and he was tired. "Tell me why! You stick that thing
into my head when I'm blasting for home. You force me to drop back. You
blow up my ship. Real friendly! Real sports!" For a moment he had run
out of words, and again they made no effort to answer him. "All right! I
don't understand you--I don't know what you want. But nobody is trying
to hurt you, nobody's after your little desert paradise. We had an idea,
that's all. We thought we could make it work. People have been talking
'go to Mars' on my planet for longer than most of 'em can remember. So
we finally gave it a whirl! Sorry!"

He looked at them hard, then, and thought that there was something
almost like a smile on the face of one. Smile, then, damn you....

"We want nothing, Earthman, but to prevent from happening on your planet
the thing that happened on this. If they succeed in destroying you as
they have us, then this System will always be under their heel, and we
shall never be rid of them. Understand, their numbers were too few ever
to conquer a planet with a civilization as large and as highly organized
as that of Earth, by physical means.

"Knowing that, we--they call us gypsies, nomads, desert-scum today--we
were not too alarmed when they landed here two centuries ago. We were
glad to take from them, without paying a price. We were awed by t