them here. Get
them out! Give them some fresh air! This place would make a well man
sick."

Douglas looked at him, "I wouldn't take one of them out unless I had him
shackled and there was an armed guard to help me. Those males are the
most vicious, cunning, and dangerous animals on Kardon. They exist with
but one thought in mind--to kill!"

Kennon looked curiously through a barred door at one of the Lani. He lay
on a bare cot, a magnificently muscled figure with a ragged black beard
hiding his face. There were dozens of scars on his body and one angry
purple area on his thick right forearm where flesh had been torn away
not too long ago. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead and soft
moaning noises came from his tight lips as he pressed his abdomen with
thick-fingered hands. "He doesn't look so dangerous," Kennon said.

"Watch it!" Douglas warned. "Don't get too close!" But the warning was
too late. Kennon touched the bars, and as he did, the Lani moved with
fluid speed, one huge hand clutching Kennon's sleeve and pulling him
against the bars while the other darted for his throat. Fingers bit
into Kennon's neck and tightened in a viselike grip. Kennon reacted
automatically. His arms came up inside the Lani's and crashed down,
elbows out, tearing the Lani loose. He jumped back, rubbing his bruised
throat. "That fellow's not sick!" he gasped. "He's crazy!"

The Lani glared at him through the bars, disappointment written on his
scarred and bearded face.

"I warned you," Douglas said. His voice held an undertone of malicious
laughter. "He must be sick or he would have killed you. George is clever
in a stupid sort of way."

Kennon looked into the cubicle. The Lani glared back and growled. There
was a beastlike note in his voice that made the short hairs on Kennon's
neck prickle.

"That fellow needs a lesson," he said.

"You want to give it to him?" Douglas asked.

"Not particularly."

"Ha!--man!--you afraid!" the Lani taunted. His voice was thick and
harsh. "All men fear me. All Lani, too. I am boss. Come close again man
and I kill you!"

"Are they all that stupid?" Kennon asked. "He sounds like a homicidal
moron."

"He's not stupid," Douglas said. "Just uneducated."

"Why is he so murderous?"

"That's his training. All his life he has fought. From childhood his
life has been based on his ability to survive in an environment where
every male is his enemy. You see here the sublimation of individuality.