ou will so we must but we can't but
we--" He kept repeating it over and over again, on and on and on.

"Stop that!" snapped Dodeth.

But the robot didn't even seem to hear.

Dodeth was really frightened now. He looked back at the five keepers
and scuttled toward them.

"What's wrong with the robots?" he asked shrilly. "They've never
failed us before!"

The Elder Keeper looked at him. "What makes you think they've failed
us now?" he asked softly.

Dodeth gaped speechlessly. The Eldest didn't seem to be making any
more sense than the patrol robot had.

"No," the Keeper went on, "they haven't failed us. They have served us
well. They have pointed out to us something which we have failed to
see, and, in doing so, have saved us from making a catastrophic
error."

"I don't understand," said Dodeth.

"I'll explain," the Elder Keeper said, "but first go over to that
patrol robot and tell him quietly that the situation has changed.
Tell him that we are no longer in any danger from the wygorex. Then
bring him over here."

* * * * *

Dodeth did as he was told, without understanding at all.

"I still don't understand, sir," he said bewilderedly.

"Dodeth, what would happen if I told Arvam, here, to fire on you?"

"Why ... why, he'd _refuse_."

"Why should he?"

"Because I'm _human_! That's the most basic robot command."

"I don't know," the Eldest said, eying Dodeth shrewdly. "You might not
be a human. You might be a snith. You _look_ like a snith."

Dodeth swallowed the insult, wondering what the Eldest meant.

"Arvam," the Eldest Keeper said to the robot, "doesn't he look like a
snith to you?"

"Yes, sir," Arvam agreed.

Dodeth swallowed that one, too.

"Then how do you know he _isn't_ a snith, Arvam?"

"Because he behaves like a human, sir. A snith does not behave like a
human."

"And if something does behave like a human, what then?"

"Anything that behaves like a human is human, sir."

Dodeth suddenly felt as though his eyes had suddenly focused after
being unfocused for a long time. He gestured toward the clearing. "You
mean those ... those _things_ ... are ... _human_?"

"Yes sir," said Arvam solidly.

"But they don't even _talk_!"

"Pardon me for correcting you sir, but they do. I cannot understand
their speech, but the pattern is clearly recognizable as speech. Most
of their conversation is carried on in tones of subsonic frequency, so
your ears cannot