asa waved a hand. "I shall arrange for my appointment as your
official host. Consider it agreed upon!"

It was agreed. But Joyce was not as optimistic as Cameron in regarding
it an aid to their study. "If they have a general aversion to talking
about their pirate ancestry, Marthasa is just the boy to put us off the
track," she said. "If he gets a clue to what we really want to know,
he'll keep us busy looking at everything else until we give up and go
home."

Cameron leaned back in the deep chair with his hands behind his head.
"It's not too hard to imagine Marthasa's great-great-grandfather running
down vessels in space and pillaging helpless cities on other planets.
The veneer of civilization on him doesn't look very thick."

"It's not hard to imagine Marthasa doing it," said Joyce. "A scimitar
between his teeth would be completely in character!"

"If all goes well, you will probably see just that--figuratively
speaking, of course. Where a cultural shift has been so great as this
one you are certain to see evidence of both levels in conflict with one
another. It's like a geologic fault line. Once we learn enough about the
current mores the anomalies will stand out in full view. That's what we
want to watch for."

"One thing that's out of character right now is his offer of assistance
through his son, the Chief Historian," said Joyce. "That doesn't check
with the previous invitations to stay home. Once they let us have access
to their historical records we'll have them pegged."

"We haven't got it yet," said Cameron. "We can't be sure just what
they'll let us see. But for my money I'd just as soon tackle the
question of the Ids. Sal Karone is twice the man Marthasa is, yet he
acts like he has no will of his own when the Markovian is around."

"The Roman-slave relationship," said Joyce. "The Markovians probably
conquered a large community of the Ids in their pirate days and brought
them here as slaves. And I'll bet they are very much aware that the Ids
are the better men. Marthasa knows it. That's why he has to put on a
show in front of Sal Karone. He's the old Roman merchant struggling to
keep up his conviction of superiority before the Greek scholar slave."

"The Ids aren't supposed to be slaves. According to the little that's
known they are completely free. I'm going to get Marthasa's version of
it, anyway. Fothergill and the Foundation can't object to that much
investigation of the Ids."

He found the Mark