essed might happen!

"If I must kill you," Stanton said carefully, "I, myself, will do the
honors. You will not go uneaten."

The Nipe sagged a little, relaxing all over. "_I had hoped it was so. It
was the only thinkable thing. I saw you on the television, and it was
only thinkable that you came for me._"

Stanton sighed inwardly. That part of Colonel Mannheim's strategy had
worked, too. The Nipe had seen all the publicity releases that had been
so carefully tailored for him.

"_I knew you were out on the asteroids_," the Nipe went on. "_But I had
decided that you had come to kill. Since you did not, what are your
thoughts, Stanley Martin?_"

"That we should help each other," Stanton said.

It was as simple as that.

_[23]_

Stanton sat in his hotel room, smoking a cigarette, staring at the wall,
and thinking.

He was alone again. All the fuss and feathers and foofaraw were over.
Dr. Farnsworth was in another room of the suite, making his plans for a
complete physical examination of the Nipe. Dr. George Yoritomo was
having the time of his life, holding a conversation with the Nipe,
drawing the alien out, and getting him to talk about his own race and
their history.

And Stanley Martin was plotting the next phase of the capture--the
cover-up.

Stanton smiled a little. Colonel Mannheim had been a great one for
planning, all right. Every little detail was taken care of. It had
sometimes made his plans more complex than necessary, Stanton suspected.
Mannheim had tended to try to account for every possible eventuality,
and, after he had done that, he had set aside a few reserves here and
there, just in case they might be useful if something unforeseen
happened.

All things considered, the Government had certainly done the right
thing. And, in picking Mannheim, they had picked the right man.

Stanton got up, walked over to the window, and looked down at the
streets of Government City, eight floors below.

What would those people down there think if they were told the true
story of the Nipe? What would the average citizen say if he discovered
that, at this very moment, the Nipe was being treated almost as an
honored guest of the Government? More, what would he say if he suspected
that the Nipe--the horrible, murderous, man-eating Nipe--could have been
killed easily at any time during the past six years?

Would it be possible for anyone to explain to the common average man
that, in the long run, th