oods. He's nothing except what he
appears to be."

The Markovians talked easily of Venor and the rest of the Ids. "We have
tried to get him to join us in the city," said Marthasa as the meal
began, "but he won't hear of it. It seems to give him a sense of
importance to live out there alone with his retinue and have the other
Ids come to him with their problems. He's a kind of arbiter and
patriarch to all of them for many miles around."

[Illustration]

While Marthasa talked Cameron tried to bring his awareness of all the
varied facets of the problem together and see it whole, as he now
understood it. The Markovians, a vast pirate community, had voluntarily
abandoned freebooting for reasons yet to be discovered. They had turned
their backs upon it so forcibly that they hid even the history of their
depredations. And one of their last acts must have been the capture of a
large colony of Idealists who were forced into servitude. Now the Ids
compensated their enslavement by the religious belief that service made
them masters over the ex-pirates, convincing themselves that _they_ had
changed the Markovians, taming them like wild dogs, saddling them as
fierce stallions--

Cameron wondered if he dared, and then dismissed the thought that there
could be any risk. It was too ridiculous!

* * * * *

There was even a half-malicious smile on his lips as he broke into
Marthasa's conversation. "One of the things that made me very curious
today," he said, "was the general reaction of your people to the
Idealist illusion that they have _tamed_ you--as expressed in their
aphorism about how was the wild dog--?"

He never finished. Across the table the faces of the Markovians had
frozen in sudden bitterness. The shield of friendliness vanished under
the cold glare from their eyes.

Marthasa's lips seemed to curl as he whispered, "So you came like all
the rest! And we wanted so much to believe you were honest. A study! A
chance to find material for lies about the Nucleus to spread among all
the Council worlds."

He continued almost sadly, "You will be confined to your quarters until
transfer authorities can arrange for your return to Earth. And you may
be sure that never again will such a scheme get one of your kind into
the Nucleus again."

But there was no hint of sadness in his wife's face. She glared coldly.
"I said they should never had been permitted to come!"

Cameron rose in sudden bewi