the desert--and I can understand him. He is not like us in
many ways--he certainly couldn't be, living in this oven--but he is
still undeniably human. He gave us drinking water when we needed it,
then brought help. The magter, the upper-class lords of Dis, are
the direct opposite. As cold-blooded and ruthless a bunch of
murderers as you can possibly imagine. They tried to kill me when
they met me, without reason. Their clothes, habits, dwellings,
manners--everything about them differs from that of the normal
Disan. More important, the magter are as coldly efficient and
inhuman as a reptile. They have no emotions, no love, no hate,
no anger, no fear--nothing. Each of them is a chilling bundle of
thought processes and reactions, with all the emotions removed."

"Aren't you exaggerating?" Lea asked. "After all, you can't be sure.
It might just be part of their training not to reveal any emotional
state. Everyone must experience emotional states, whether they like
it or not."

"That's my main point. Everyone does--except the magter. I can't go
into all the details now, so you'll just have to take my word for
it. Even at the point of death they have no fear or hatred. It may
sound impossible, but it is true."

Lea tried to shake the knots from her drug-hazed mind. "I'm dull
today," she said. "You'll have to excuse me. If these rulers had no
emotional responses, that might explain their present suicidal
position. But an explanation like this raises more new problems than
it supplies answers to the old ones. How did they get this way! It
doesn't seem humanly possible to be without emotions of some kind."

"Just my point. Not _humanly_ possible. I think these ruling class
Disans aren't human at all, like the other Disans. I think they are
alien creatures--robots or androids--anything except men. I think
they are living in disguise among the normal human dwellers."

At first Lea started to smile, then her feeling changed when she saw
his face. "You are serious?" she asked.

"Never more so. I realize it must sound as if I've had my brains
bounced around too much this morning. Yet this is the only idea I
can come up with that fits all of the facts. Look at the evidence
yourself. One simple thing stands out clearly, and must be
considered first if any theory is to hold up. That is the magters'
complete indifference to death--their own or anyone else's. Is that
normal to mankind?"

"No--but I can find a couple of explanatio