. Harry," he told his subordinate, "go out and
pass the word around. Only two, and we think they're friendly. Keep
everybody out of sight; we don't want to scare them away."

The snooper followed closely behind them. The man was no longer
wearing his apron; the woman's tunic was even more tattered and
soiled. She was leading him by the hand. Now and then, she would
stop and turn her head to the rear. The snooper over the mound
showed nothing but half a dozen fire-watchers dozing by their fires.
Then the pair were at the edge of the camp lights. As they advanced,
they seemed to realize that they had passed a point-of-no-return.
They straightened and came forward steadily, the woman seeming
to be guiding her companion.

"What's happening, Mark?"

It was Lillian; she must have just come out of the soundproof
speech-lab.

"You know them; the pair in the queue, this afternoon. I think
we've annexed a couple of friendly natives."

They all went outside. The two natives, having come into the camp,
had stopped. For a moment, the man in the breechclout seemed undecided
whether he was more afraid to turn and run than advance. The woman,
holding his hand, led him forward. They were both bruised, and both
had minor cuts, and neither of them had any of the things that had
been given to them that afternoon.

"Rest of the gang beat them up and robbed them," Gofredo began angrily.

"See what you did?" Dorver began. "According to their own customs,
they had no right to be ahead of those others, and now you've gotten
them punished for it."

"I'd have done more to that fellow then Mark did, if I'd been there
when it happened." The Marine officer turned to Meillard. "Look,
this is your show, Paul; how you run it is your job. But in your
place, I'd take that pair back to the village and have them point
out who beat them up, and teach the whole gang of them a lesson.
If you're going to colonize this planet, you're going to have to
establish Federation law, and Federation law says you mustn't gang
up on people and beat and rob them. We don't have to speak Svantese
to make them understand what we'll put up with and what we won't."

"Later, Luis. After we've gotten a treaty with somebody." Meillard
broke off. "Watch this!"

The woman was making sign-talk. She pointed to the village on the
mound. Then, with her hands, she shaped a bucket like the ones that
had been given to them, and made a snatching gesture away from
herself. She