nd drifted majestically toward the lake shore. He could
check on the progress of the village from his view crystal back at the
Residence.

The situation had been taken care of and there was no point in remaining
in the depressing atmosphere of the village for too long.

Besides, there was that adventure projection he hadn't finished.
Perhaps it would be of interest now.

* * * * *

As the projection faded, Barra looked around the study, then got out of
his chair and picked the crystal from its pedestal. He stood, looking at
it approvingly for a few seconds, then went over to the cabinet and set
it back in its case. For a time, he looked at the rest of the
assortment.

Finally, he shook his head. Some of them, he would sell unscanned. The
others--well, they could wait.

Yes, he thought, the record crystals had better be left alone for a
while. He hadn't finished his inspection of the Estates and the
situation at Tibara might not be an isolated case. It would be well to
make a really searching inspection. He sighed.

In fact, it might be well to make frequent searching inspections.

Shortly after his accession to the Estates, he had seen to the defense
of Kira Barra. He smiled wryly as he thought of the expense he had
incurred in securing all those power and control crystals to make up his
surrogate installations. But they had been well worth it.

He had been most thorough then, but that had been some time ago. His
last full inspection had been almost a year ago. Lately he had been
satisfying himself with spot inspections, not really going over the
Estates from border to border.

Of course, the spot inspections had been calculated to touch the
potential trouble spots and they had been productive of results, but
there might still be hidden things he should know about. This would
have to be looked into.

He turned and went back to his chair, causing it to swivel around and
face the view crystal.

There was that matter of Tibara, as far as that went. Possibly it would
be well to count that herd and identify the animals positively.

Maybe the pasturage was getting poor and he would have to instruct the
new headman to move to better lands. Those strays had looked rather
thin, now that he thought of it.

Maybe some of the other long-necks had strayed from the main herd and he
would have to have the headman send out guards to pick them up and bring
them in.

He concentrated on t