aster of life and death on a two-acre island. No one will
mind. You can also go to work. No one will mind that, either. And
Mullins won't mind as long as you leave the troops alone. Now get out of
here and get packed. You're leaving tomorrow morning."

"But cousin Alex--"

"Move! I'm tired of the sight of you!" Alexander said.

Douglas turned and shambled out of the room. His ego was thoroughly
deflated and he seemed more frightened than before. Obviously the Otpens
weren't the pleasantest place in this world.

"They're a military post," Alexander said. "And Commander Mullins
doesn't like Douglas. Can't say that I blame him. Douglas is a
thoroughly unpleasant specimen, and incidentally quite typical of the
rest of the Family." Alexander sighed and spread his hands in a gesture
that combined disgust and resignation. "Sometimes I wonder why I have
been cursed with my relatives."

Kennon nodded. The implications behind the empty eyes of Douglas's Lani
sickened him. There were several ways to produce that expression, all of
them unpleasant. Hypnoconditioning, the Quiet Treatment, brainburning,
transorbital leukotomy, lobectomy--all of the products of that diseased
period of humanity's thinking when men tampered with the brains of other
men in an effort to cure psychic states. Psychiatry had passed that
period, at least on the civilized worlds, where even animal experiments
were frowned upon as unnecessary cruelty.

"You saw those two Lani," Alexander said. "Grandfather had them made
that way as a birthday present for Douglas. He was getting senile. He
died a year later. You'd think a man would be ashamed to keep things
like that around--but not Douglas. He likes them." Alexander's voice was
tinged with contempt. "He knows they disgust me--so he parades them in.
I could strangle that pup sometimes!"

"I wondered about it. I wouldn't like to work for a man who permitted
such things."

"That was done before I took over. For the past three years there have
been no dockings, no mutilations. I can't see treating a helpless animal
like that."

"I feel better about it," Kennon said. "I didn't think you were that
sort."

"Understand me," Alexander said. "I'm always opposed to senseless
cruelty and waste--particularly when it's dangerous. Docked Lani are the
height of stupidity. Just because someone wants a pet that is an exact
duplicate of a human being is no reason to risk a court action. Those
Lani, and a few others w