"I was
wondering when you would show up," he said.

"A lot sooner if you hadn't prevented it," Jason told him as he dropped
wearily into a chair. "It finally dawned on me that I could spend the
rest of my life in your blood-thirsty nursery school if I didn't do
something about it. So here I am."

"Ready to return to the 'civilized' worlds, now that you've seen enough
of Pyrrus?"

"I am not," Jason said. "And I'm getting very tired of everyone telling
me to leave. I'm beginning to think that you and the rest of the Pyrrans
are trying to hide something."

Kerk smiled at the thought. "What could we have to hide? I doubt if any
planet has as simple and one-directional an existence as ours."

"If that's true, then you certainly wouldn't mind answering a few direct
questions about Pyrrus?"

Kerk started to protest, then laughed. "Well done. I should know better
by now than to argue with you. What do you want to know?"

Jason tried to find a comfortable position on the hard chair, then gave
up. "What's the population of your planet?" he asked.

For a second Kerk hesitated, then said, "Roughly thirty thousand. That
is not very much for a planet that has been settled this long, but the
reason for that is obvious."

"All right, population thirty thousand," Jason said. "Now how about
surface control of your planet. I was surprised to find out that this
city within its protective wall--the perimeter--is the only one on the
planet. Let's not consider the mining camps, since they are obviously
just extensions of the city. Would you say then, that you people control
more or less of the planet's surface than you did in the past?"

* * * * *

Kerk picked up a length of steel pipe from the desk, that he used as a
paperweight, and toyed with it as he thought. The thick steel bent like
rubber at his touch, as he concentrated on his answer.

"That's hard to say offhand. There must be records of that sort of
thing, though I wouldn't know where to find them. It depends on so many
factors--"

"Let's forget that for now then," Jason said. "I have another question
that's really more relevant. Wouldn't you say that the population of
Pyrrus is declining steadily, year after year?"

There was a sharp _twang_ as the steel snapped in Kerk's fingers, the
pieces dropping to the floor. He stood, over Jason, his hands extended
towards the smaller man, his face flushed and angry.

"Don't ever say that," he