e the crystal from about her to move her; it is too heavy to
carry otherwise. Then when she awakes, you can find a way to divert
their pursuit, provide a false trail. Do you understand?"

"I could try, but I cannot tell if I could outwit them or not."

"They are really very stupid things, the Jivros. Like an insect, their
patterns are fixed and repetitive. They are almost incapable of original
thought. Once you know them, you can always outwit them. With you will
go my brother, Genner. He may be successful where you are not."

"It is agreed then." I stood up; this low couch made my knees stiff. She
took my movement as a dismissal of her, and flushed deeply. I smiled at
her embarrassment, and went down on one knee to bring my face level with
hers where she half reclined on the bench-like lounge.

"Dear lady," I said in English, not finding the necessary Schree words
in my artificial memory for a term of respect--then in Schree phrases,
"I will do my utter best to help you and your people. It is my duty to
my own race, too, as it is yours to yours. Trust me, so far as good-will
may go. Together, we will rid ourselves of these unclean Jivros of
yours!"

She rose then, and I stood too, still holding her hand that I had seized
in my own to impress her with my sincerity. For an instant she looked
at our two hands clasped together, then she placed an arm on my
shoulder, leaning against me and trembling slightly with emotion. Tears
sprang out in her eyes. She brushed them aside.

I did not know what to do. For fear of offending her, I restrained the
impulse to take her in my arms, and it took great willpower.

Something about her aroused my deepest admiration. Here was a woman who
had been playing a difficult part for years, whose heart was sore with
sorrow for her blighted people, and who must yet seem to approve. The
signs of long strain were very plain on her face. I understood that this
was one of her greatest fears, that her mind would give way and betray
her true emotions to the Jivros.

Clumsily I patted her bare shoulder. For an instant her wet cheek was
pressed against my own, then she went gliding swiftly away, her face
once again proud and empty of all human feeling. At the door she turned,
swept her palm once over her face, removing the tears and as the hand
passed upward she smiled as sweetly as a young girl, with a pathetic and
utterly charming mischievous expression. Then the palm passed downward,
and her