LITTLE FUZZY

by

H. Beam Piper

I

Jack Holloway found himself squinting, the orange sun full in his eyes. Heraised a hand to push his hat forward, then lowered it to the controls toalter the pulse rate of the contragravity-field generators and lift themanipulator another hundred feet. For a moment he sat, puffing on theshort pipe that had yellowed the corners of his white mustache, and lookeddown at the red rag tied to a bush against the rock face of the gorge fivehundred yards away. He was smiling in anticipation. 

"This'll be a good one, " he told himself aloud, in the manner of men whohave long been their own and only company. "I want to see this one go up. "

He always did. He could remember at least a thousand blast-shots he hadfired back along the years and on more planets than he could name at themoment, including a few thermonuclears, but they were all different andthey were always something to watch, even a little one like this. Flippingthe switch, his thumb found the discharger button and sent out a radioimpulse; the red rag vanished in an upsurge of smoke and dust that mountedout of the gorge and turned to copper when the sunlight touched it. Thebig manipulator, weightless on contragravity, rocked gently; fallingdebris pelted the trees and splashed in the little stream. 

He waited till the machine stabilized, then glided it down to where he hadripped a gash in the cliff with the charge of cataclysmite. Good shot:brought down a lot of sandstone, cracked the vein of flint and hadn'tthrown it around too much. A lot of big slabs were loose. Extending theforward claw-arms, he pulled and tugged, and then used the undersidegrapples to pick up a chunk and drop it on the flat ground between thecliff and the stream. He dropped another chunk on it, breaking both ofthem, and then another and another, until he had all he could work overthe rest of the day. Then he set down, got the toolbox and thelong-handled contragravity lifter, and climbed to the ground where heopened the box, put on gloves and an eyescreen and got out a microrayscanner and a vibrohammer. 

The first chunk he cracked off had nothing in it; the scanner gave theuninterrupted pattern of homogenous structure. Picking it up with thelifter, he swung it and threw it into the stream. On the fifteenth chunk, he got an interruption pattern that told him that a sunstone--orsomething, probably something--was inside. 

Some fifty million years ago, when the planet that had been calledZarathustra (for the last twenty-five million) was young, there hadexisted a marine life form, something like a jellyfish. As these died, they had sunk into the sea-bottom ooze; sand had covered the ooze andpressed it tighter and tighter, until it had become glassy flint, and theentombed jellyfish little beans of dense stone. Some of them, by someancient biochemical quirk, were intensely thermofluorescent; worn as gems, they glowed from the wearer's body heat. 

On Terra or Baldur or Freya or Ishtar, a single cut of polished sunstonewas worth a small fortune. Even here, they brought respectable prices fromthe Zarathustra Company's gem buyers. Keeping his point of expectationsafely low, he got a smaller vibrohammer from the toolbox and beganchipping cautiously around the foreign object, until the flint split openand revealed a smooth yellow ellipsoid, half an inch long. 

"Worth a thousand sols--if it's worth anything, " he commented. A deft taphere, another there, and the yellow bean came loose from the flint. Picking it up, he rubbed it between gloved palms. "I don't think it is. "He rubbed harder, then held it against the hot bowl of his pipe. It stilldidn't respond. He dropped it. "Another jellyfish that didn't live right. "

Behind him, something moved in the brush with a dry rustling. He droppedthe loose glove from his right hand and turned, reaching toward his hip. Then he saw what had made the noise--a hard-shelled thing a foot inlength, with twelve legs, long antennae and two pairs of clawed mandibles. He stopped and picked up a shard of flint, throwing it with an oath. Another damned infernal land-prawn. 

He detested land-prawns. They were horrible things, which, of course, wasn't their fault. More to the point, they were destructive. They gotinto things at camp; they would try to eat anything. They crawled intomachinery, possibly finding the lubrication tasty, and caused jams. Theycut into electric insulation. And they got into his bedding, and bit, orrather pinched, painfully. Nobody loved a land-prawn, not even anotherland-prawn. 

This one dodged the thrown flint, scuttled off a few feet and turned, waving its antennae in what looked like derision. Jack reached for his hipagain, then checked the motion. Pistol cartridges cost like crazy; theyweren't to be wasted in fits of childish pique. Then he reflected that nocartridge fired at a target is really wasted, and that he hadn't done anyshooting recently. Stooping again, he picked up another stone and tossedit a foot short and to the left of the prawn. As soon as it was out of hisfingers, his hand went for the butt of the long automatic. It was out andthe safety off before the flint landed; as the prawn fled, he fired fromthe hip. The quasi-crustacean disintegrated. He nodded pleasantly. 

"Ol' man Holloway's still hitting things he shoots at. "

Was a time, not so long ago, when he took his abilities for granted. Nowhe was getting old enough to have to verify them. He thumbed on the safetyand holstered the pistol, then picked up the glove and put it on again. 

Never saw so blasted many land-prawns as this summer. They'd been bad lastyear, but nothing like this. Even the oldtimers who'd been on Zarathustrasince the first colonization said so. There'd be some simple explanation, of course; something that would amaze him at his own obtuseness for nothaving seen it at once. Maybe the abnormally dry weather had something todo with it. Or increase of something they ate, or decrease of naturalenemies. 

He'd heard that land-prawns had no natural enemies; he questioned that. Something killed them. He'd seen crushed prawn shells, some of them closeto his camp. Maybe stamped on by something with hoofs, and then pickedclean by insects. He'd ask Ben Rainsford; Ben ought to know. 

Half an hour later, the scanner gave him another interruption pattern. Helaid it aside and took up the small vibrohammer. This time it was a largebean, light pink in color, He separated it from its matrix of flint andrubbed it, and instantly it began glowing. 

"Ahhh! This is something like it, now!"

He rubbed harder; warmed further on his pipe bowl, it fairly blazed. Better than a thousand sols, he told himself. Good color, too. Getting hisgloves off, he drew out the little leather bag from under his shirt, loosening the drawstrings by which it hung around his neck. There were adozen and a half stones inside, all bright as live coals. He looked atthem for a moment, and dropped the new sunstone in among them, chucklinghappily. 

 * * * * *

Victor Grego, listening to his own recorded voice, rubbed the sunstone onhis left finger with the heel of his right palm and watched it brighten. There was, he noticed, a boastful ring to his voice--not the suave, unemphatic tone considered proper on a message-tape. Well, if anybodywondered why, when they played that tape off six months from now inJohannesburg on Terra, they could look in the cargo holds of the ship thathad brought it across five hundred light-years of space. Ingots of goldand platinum and gadolinium. Furs and biochemicals and brandy. Perfumesthat defied synthetic imitation; hardwoods no plastic could copy. Spices. And the steel coffer full of sunstones. Almost all luxury goods, the onlyreally dependable commodities in interstellar trade. 

And he had spoken of other things. Veldbeest meat, up seven per cent fromlast month, twenty per cent from last year, still in demand on a dozenplanets unable to produce Terran-type foodstuffs. Grain, leather, lumber. And he had added a dozen more items to the lengthening list of whatZarathustra could now produce in adequate quantities and no longer neededto import. Not fishhooks and boot buckles, either--blasting explosives andpropellants, contragravity-field generator parts, power tools, pharmaceuticals, synthetic textiles. The Company didn't need to carryZarathustra any more; Zarathustra could carry the Company, and itself. 

Fifteen years ago, when the Zarathustra Company had sent him here, therehad been a cluster of log and prefab huts beside an improvised landingfield, almost exactly where this skyscraper now stood. Today, Mallorysportwas a city of seventy thousand; in all, the planet had a population ofnearly a million, and it was still growing. There were steel mills andchemical plants and reaction plants and machine works. They produced alltheir own fissionables, and had recently begun to export a little refinedplutonium; they had even started producing collapsium shielding. 

The recorded voice stopped. He ran back the spool, set for sixty-speed, and transmitted it to the radio office. In twenty minutes, a copy would beaboard the ship that would hyper out for Terra that night. While he wasfinishing, his communication screen buzzed. 

"Dr. Kellogg's screening you, Mr. Grego, " the girl in the outside officetold him. 

He nodded. Her hands moved, and she vanished in a polychromatic explosion;when it cleared, the chief of the Division of Scientific Study andResearch was looking out of the screen instead. Looking slightly upward atthe showback over his own screen, Victor was getting his warm, sympathetic, sincere and slightly too toothy smile on straight. 

"Hello, Leonard. Everything going all right?"

It either was and Leonard Kellogg wanted more credit than he deserved orit wasn't and he was trying to get somebody else blamed for it beforeanybody could blame him. 

"Good afternoon, Victor. " Just the right shade of deference about usingthe first name--big wheel to bigger wheel. "Has Nick Emmert been talkingto you about the Big Blackwater project today?"

Nick was the Federation's resident-general; on Zarathustra he was, to allintents and purposes, the Terran Federation Government. He was also alarge stockholder in the chartered Zarathustra Company. 

"No. Is he likely to?"

"Well, I wondered, Victor. He was on my screen just now. He says there'ssome adverse talk about the effect on the rainfall in the Piedmont area ofBeta Continent. He was worried about it. "

"Well, it would affect the rainfall. After all, we drained half a millionsquare miles of swamp, and the prevailing winds are from the west. There'dbe less atmospheric moisture to the east of it. Who's talking adverselyabout it, and what worries Nick?"

"Well, Nick's afraid of the effect on public opinion on Terra. You knowhow strong conservation sentiment is; everybody's very much opposed to anysort of destructive exploitation. "

"Good Lord! The man doesn't call the creation of five hundred thousandsquare miles of new farmland destructive exploitation, does he?"

"Well, no, Nick doesn't call it that; of course not. But he's concernedabout some garbled story getting to Terra about our upsetting theecological balance and causing droughts. Fact is, I'm rather concernedmyself. "

He knew what was worrying both of them. Emmert was afraid the FederationColonial Office would blame him for drawing fire on them from theconservationists. Kellogg was afraid he'd be blamed for not predicting theeffects before his division endorsed the project. As a division chief, hehad advanced as far as he would in the Company hierarchy; now he was on aRed Queen's racetrack, running like hell to stay in the same place. 

"The rainfall's dropped ten per cent from last year, and fifteen per centfrom the year before that, " Kellogg was saying. "And some non-Companypeople have gotten hold of it, and so had Interworld News. Why, even someof my people are talking about ecological side-effects. You know what willhappen when a story like that gets back to Terra. The conservationfanatics will get hold of it, and the Company'll be criticized. "

That would hurt Leonard. He identified himself with the Company. It wassomething bigger and more powerful than he was, like God. 

Victor Grego identified the Company with himself. It was something big andpowerful, like a vehicle, and he was at the controls. 

"Leonard, a little criticism won't hurt the Company, " he said. "Not whereit matters, on the dividends. I'm afraid you're too sensitive tocriticism. Where did Emmert get this story anyhow? From your people?"

"No, absolutely not, Victor. That's what worries him. It was this manRainsford who started it. "

"Rainsford?"

"Dr. Bennett Rainsford, the naturalist. Institute of Zeno-Sciences. Inever trusted any of those people; they always poke their noses intothings, and the Institute always reports their findings to the ColonialOffice. "

"I know who you mean now; little fellow with red whiskers, always looks asthough he'd been sleeping in his clothes. Why, of course the Zeno-Sciencespeople poke their noses into things, and of course they report theirfindings to the government. " He was beginning to lose patience. "I don'tsee what all this is about, Leonard. This man Rainsford just made aroutine observation of meteorological effects. I suggest you have yourmeteorologists check it, and if it's correct pass it on to the newsservices along with your other scientific findings. "

"Nick Emmert thinks Rainsford is a Federation undercover agent. "

That made him laugh. Of course there were undercover agents onZarathustra, hundreds of them. The Company had people here checking onhim; he knew and accepted that. So did the big stockholders, likeInterstellar Explorations and the Banking Cartel and Terra Baldur-MardukSpacelines. Nick Emmert had his corps of spies and stool pigeons, and theTerran Federation had people here watching both him and Emmert. Rainsfordcould be a Federation agent--a roving naturalist would have a wonderfulcover occupation. But this Big Blackwater business was so utterly silly. Nick Emmert had too much graft on his conscience; it was too bad thatoverloaded consciences couldn't blow fuses. 

"Suppose he is, Leonard. What could he report on us? We are a charteredcompany, and we have an excellent legal department, which keeps us safelyinside our charter. It is a very liberal charter, too. This is a Class-IIIuninhabited planet; the Company owns the whole thing outright. We can doanything we want as long as we don't violate colonial law or theFederation Constitution. As long as we don't do that, Nick Emmert hasn'tanything to worry about. Now forget this whole damned business, Leonard!"He was beginning to speak sharply, and Kellogg was looking hurt. "I knowyou were concerned about injurious reports getting back to Terra, and thatwas quite commendable, but. .. . "

By the time he got through, Kellogg was happy again. Victor blanked thescreen, leaned back in his chair and began laughing. In a moment, thescreen buzzed again. When he snapped it on, his screen-girl said:

"Mr. Henry Stenson's on, Mr. Grego. "

"Well, put him on. " He caught himself just before adding that it would bea welcome change to talk to somebody with sense. 

The face that appeared was elderly and thin; the mouth was tight, andthere were squint-wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. 

"Well, Mr. Stenson. Good of you to call. How are you?"

"Very well, thank you. And you?" When he also admitted to good health, thecaller continued: "How is the globe running? Still in synchronization?"

Victor looked across the office at his most prized possession, the bigglobe of Zarathustra that Henry Stenson had built for him, supported sixfeet from the floor on its own contragravity unit, spotlighted in orangeto represent the KO sun, its two satellites circling about it as itrevolved slowly. 

"The globe itself is keeping perfect time, and Darius is all right, Xerxesis a few seconds of longitude ahead of true position. "

"That's dreadful, Mr. Grego!" Stenson was deeply shocked. "I must adjustthat the first thing tomorrow. I should have called to check on it longago, but you know how it is. So many things to do, and so little time. "

"I find the same trouble myself, Mr. Stenson. " They chatted for a while, and then Stenson apologized for taking up so much of Mr. Grego's valuabletime. What he meant was that his own time, just as valuable to him, waswasting. After the screen blanked, Grego sat looking at it for a moment, wishing he had a hundred men like Henry Stenson in his own organization. Just men with Stenson's brains and character; wishing for a hundredinstrument makers with Stenson's skills would have been unreasonable, evenfor wishing. There was only one Henry Stenson, just as there had been onlyone Antonio Stradivari. Why a man like that worked in a little shop on afrontier planet like Zarathustra. .. . 

Then he looked, pridefully, at the globe. Alpha Continent had moved slowlyto the right, with the little speck that represented Mallorysporttwinkling in the orange light. Darius, the inner moon, where theTerra-Baldur-Marduk Spacelines had their leased terminal, was almostdirectly over it, and the other moon, Xerxes, was edging into sight. Xerxes was the one thing about Zarathustra that the Company didn't own;the Terran Federation had retained that as a naval base. It was the onereminder that there was something bigger and more powerful than theCompany. 

 * * * * *

Gerd van Riebeek saw Ruth Ortheris leave the escalator, step aside andstand looking around the cocktail lounge. He set his glass, with its inchof tepid highball, on the bar; when her eyes shifted in his direction, hewaved to her, saw her brighten and wave back and then went to meet her. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, dodged when he reached for her andtook his arm. 

"Drink before we eat?" he asked. 

"Oh, Lord, yes! I've just about had it for today. "

He guided her toward one of the bartending machines, inserted his creditkey, and put a four-portion jug under the spout, dialing the cocktail theyalways had when they drank together. As he did, he noticed what she waswearing: short black jacket, lavender neckerchief, light gray skirt. Nother usual vacation get-up. 

"School department drag you back?" he asked as the jug filled. 

"Juvenile court. " She got a couple of glasses from the shelf under themachine as he picked up the jug. "A fifteen-year-old burglar. "

They found a table at the rear of the room, out of the worst of thecocktail-hour uproar. As soon as he filled her glass, she drank half ofit, then lit a cigarette. 

"Junktown?" he asked. 

She nodded. "Only twenty-five years since this planet was discovered, andwe have slums already. I was over there most of the afternoon, with a pairof city police. " She didn't seem to want to talk about it. "What were youdoing today?"

"Ruth, you ought to ask Doc Mallin to drop in on Leonard Kellogg sometime, and give him an unobstusive going over. "

"You haven't been having trouble with him again?" she asked anxiously. 

He made a face, and then tasted his drink. "It's trouble just being aroundthat character. Ruth, to use one of those expressions your professiondeplores, Len Kellogg is just plain nuts!" He drank some more of hiscocktail and helped himself to one of her cigarettes. "Here, " hecontinued, after lighting it. "A couple of days ago, he told me he'd beengetting inquiries about this plague of land-prawns they're having over onBeta. He wanted me to set up a research project to find out why and whatto do about it. "

"Well?"

"I did. I made two screen calls, and then I wrote a report and sent it upto him. That was where I jerked my trigger; I ought to have taken a coupleof weeks and made a real production out of it. "

"What did you tell him?"

"The facts. The limiting factor on land-prawn increase is the weather. Theeggs hatch underground and the immature prawns dig their way out in thespring. If there's been a lot of rain, most of them drown in their holesor as soon as they emerge. According to growth rings on trees, last springwas the driest in the Beta Piedmont in centuries, so most of themsurvived, and as they're parthenogenetic females, they all laid eggs. Thisspring, it was even drier, so now they have land prawns all over centralBeta. And I don't know that anything can be done about them. "

"Well, did he think you were just guessing?"

He shook his head in exasperation. "I don't know what he thinks. You'rethe psychologist, you try to figure it. I sent him that report yesterdaymorning. He seemed quite satisfied with it at the time. Today, just afternoon, he sent for me and told me it wouldn't do at all. Tried to insistthat the rainfall on Beta had been normal. That was silly; I referred himto his meteorologists and climatologists, where I'd gotten my information. He complained that the news services were after him for an explanation. Itold him I'd given him the only explanation there was. He said he simplycouldn't use it. There had to be some other explanation. "

"If you don't like the facts, you ignore them, and if you need facts, dream up some you do like, " she said. "That's typical rejection ofreality. Not psychotic, not even psychoneurotic. But certainly not sane. "She had finished her first drink and was sipping slowly at her second. "You know, this is interesting. Does he have some theory that woulddisqualify yours?"

"Not that I know of. I got the impression that he just didn't want thesubject of rainfall on Beta discussed at all. "

"That is odd. Has anything else peculiar been happening over on Betalately?"

"No. Not that I know of, " he repeated. "Of course, that swamp-drainageproject over there was what caused the dry weather, last year and thisyear, but I don't see. .. . " His own glass was empty, and when he tilted thejug over it, a few drops trickled out. He looked at his watch. "Think wecould have another cocktail before dinner?" he asked. 

II

Jack Holloway landed the manipulator in front of the cluster of prefabhuts. For a moment he sat still, realizing that he was tired, and then heclimbed down from the control cabin and crossed the open grass to the doorof the main living hut, opening it and reaching in to turn on the lights. Then he hesitated, looking up at Darius. 

There was a wide ring around it, and he remembered noticing the wisps ofcirrus clouds gathering overhead through the afternoon. Maybe it wouldrain tonight. This dry weather couldn't last forever. He'd been lettingthe manipulator stand out overnight lately. He decided to put it in thehangar. He went and opened the door of the vehicle shed, got back onto themachine and floated it inside. When he came back to the living hut, he sawthat he had left the door wide open. 

"Damn fool!" he rebuked himself. "Place could be crawling with prawns bynow. "

He looked quickly around the living room--under the big combination deskand library table, under the gunrack, under the chairs, back of thecommunication screen and the viewscreen, beyond the metal cabinet of themicrofilm library--and saw nothing. Then he hung up his hat, took off hispistol and laid it on the table, and went back to the bathroom to wash hishands. 

As soon as he put on the light, something inside the shower stall said, "_Yeeeek!_" in a startled voice. 

He turned quickly to see two wide eyes staring up at him out of a ball ofgolden fur. Whatever it was, it had a round head and big ears and avaguely humanoid face with a little snub nose. It was sitting on itshaunches, and in that position it was about a foot high. It had two tinyhands with opposing thumbs. He squatted to have a better look at it. 

"Hello there, little fellow, " he greeted it. "I never saw anything likeyou before. What are you anyhow?"

The small creature looked at him seriously and said, "Yeek, " in a timidvoice. 

"Why, sure; you're a Little Fuzzy, that's what you are. "

He moved closer, careful to make no alarmingly sudden movements, and kepton talking to it. 

"Bet you slipped in while I left the door open. Well, if a Little Fuzzyfinds a door open, I'd like to know why he shouldn't come in and lookaround. "

He touched it gently. It started to draw back, then reached out a littlehand and felt the material of his shirt-sleeve. He stroked it, and told itthat it had the softest, silkiest fur ever. Then he took it on his lap. Ityeeked in pleasure, and stretched an arm up around his neck. 

"Why, sure; we're going to be good friends, aren't we? Would you likesomething to eat? Well, suppose you and I go see what we can find. "

He put one hand under it, to support it like a baby--at least, he seemedto recall having seen babies supported in that way; babies were things hedidn't fool with if he could help it--and straightened. It weighed betweenfifteen and twenty pounds. At first, it struggled in panic, then quietedand seemed to enjoy being carried. In the living room he sat down in hisfavorite armchair, under a standing lamp, and examined his newacquaintance. 

It was a mammal--there was a fairly large mammalian class onZarathustra--but beyond that he was stumped. It wasn't a primate, in theTerran sense. It wasn't like anything Terran, or anything else onZarathustra. Being a biped put it in a class by itself for this planet. Itwas just a Little Fuzzy, and that was the best he could do. 

That sort of nomenclature was the best anybody could do on a Class-IIIplanet. On a Class-IV planet, say Loki, or Shesha, or Thor, naming animalswas a cinch. You pointed to something and asked a native, and he'd garglea mouthful of syllables at you, which might only mean, "Whaddaya wannaknow for?" and you took it down in phonetic alphabet and the whatzit had aname. But on Zarathustra, there were no natives to ask. So this was aLittle Fuzzy. 

"What would you like to eat, Little Fuzzy?" he asked. "Open your mouth, and let Pappy Jack see what you have to chew with. "

Little Fuzzy's dental equipment, allowing for the fact that his jaw wasrounder, was very much like his own. 

"You're probably omnivorous. How would you like some nice TerranFederation Space Forces Emergency Ration, Extraterrestrial, Type Three?"he asked. 

Little Fuzzy made what sounded like an expression of willingness to tryit. It would be safe enough; Extee Three had been fed to a number ofZarathustran mammals without ill effects. He carried Little Fuzzy out intothe kitchen and put him on the floor, then got out a tin of the fieldration and opened it, breaking off a small piece and handing it down. Little Fuzzy took the piece of golden-brown cake, sniffed at it, gave adelighted yeek and crammed the whole piece in his mouth. 

"You never had to live on that stuff and nothing else for a month, that'sfor sure!"

He broke the cake in half and broke one half into manageable pieces andput it down on a saucer. Maybe Little Fuzzy would want a drink, too. Hestarted to fill a pan with water, as he would for a dog, then looked athis visitor sitting on his haunches eating with both hands and changed hismind. He rinsed a plastic cup cap from an empty whisky bottle and put itdown beside a deep bowl of water. Little Fuzzy was thirsty, and he didn'thave to be shown what the cup was for. 

It was too late to get himself anything elaborate; he found some leftoversin the refrigerator and combined them into a stew. While it was heating, he sat down at the kitchen table and lit his pipe. The spurt of flame fromthe lighter opened Little Fuzzy's eyes, but what really awed him was PappyJack blowing smoke. He sat watching this phenomenon, until, a few minuteslater, the stew was hot and the pipe was laid aside; then Little Fuzzywent back to nibbling Extee Three. 

Suddenly he gave a yeek of petulance and scampered into the living room. In a moment, he was back with something elongated and metallic which helaid on the floor beside him. 

"What have you got there, Little Fuzzy? Let Pappy Jack see?"

Then he recognized it as his own one-inch wood chisel. He rememberedleaving it in the outside shed after doing some work about a week ago, andnot being able to find it when he had gone to look for it. That hadworried him; people who got absent-minded about equipment didn't last longin the wilderness. After he finished eating and took the dishes to thesink, he went over and squatted beside his new friend. 

"Let Pappy Jack look at it, Little Fuzzy, " he said. "Oh, I'm not going totake it away from you. I just want to see it. "

The edge was dulled and nicked; it had been used for a lot of things woodchisels oughtn't to be used for. Digging, and prying, and most likely, ithad been used as a weapon. It was a handy-sized, all-purpose tool for aLittle Fuzzy. He laid it on the floor where he had gotten it and startedwashing the dishes. 

Little Fuzzy watched him with interest for a while, and then he beganinvestigating the kitchen. Some of the things he wanted to investigate hadto be taken away from him; at first that angered him, but he soon learnedthat there were things he wasn't supposed to have. Eventually, the dishesgot washed. 

There were more things to investigate in the living room. One of them wasthe wastebasket. He found that it could be dumped, and promptly dumped it, pulling out everything that hadn't fallen out. He bit a corner off a sheetof paper, chewed on it and spat it out in disgust. Then he found thatcrumpled paper could be flattened out and so he flattened a few sheets, and then discovered that it could also be folded. Then he got himselfgleefully tangled in a snarl of wornout recording tape. Finally he lostinterest and started away. Jack caught him and brought him back. 

"No, Little Fuzzy, " he said. "You do not dump wastebaskets and then walkaway from them. You put things back in. " He touched the container andsaid, slowly and distinctly, "Waste . .. Basket. " Then he righted it, doingit as Little Fuzzy would have to, and picked up a piece of paper, tossingit in from Little Fuzzy's shoulder height. Then he handed Little Fuzzy awad of paper and repeated, "Waste . .. Basket. "

Little Fuzzy looked at him and said something that sounded as though itmight be: "What's the matter with you, Pappy; you crazy or something?"After a couple more tries, however, he got it, and began throwing thingsin. In a few minutes, he had everything back in except a brightly coloredplastic cartridge box and a wide-mouthed bottle with a screw cap. He heldthese up and said, "Yeek?"

"Yes, you can have them. Here; let Pappy Jack show you something. "

He showed Little Fuzzy how the box could be opened and shut. Then, holdingit where Little Fuzzy could watch, he unscrewed the cap and then screwedit on again. 

"There, now. You try it. "

Little Fuzzy looked up inquiringly, then took the bottle, sitting down andholding it between his knees. Unfortunately, he tried twisting it thewrong way and only screwed the cap on tighter. He yeeked plaintively. 

"No, go ahead. You can do it. "

Little Fuzzy looked at the bottle again. Then he tried twisting the capthe other way, and it loosened. He gave a yeek that couldn't possibly beanything but "Eureka!" and promptly took it off, holding it up. Afterbeing commended, he examined both the bottle and the cap, feeling thethreads, and then screwed the cap back on again. 

"You know, you're a smart Little Fuzzy. " It took a few seconds to realizejust how smart. Little Fuzzy had wondered why you twisted the cap one wayto take it off and the other way to put it on, and he had found out. Forpure reasoning ability, that topped anything in the way of animalintelligence he'd ever seen. "I'm going to tell Ben Rainsford about you. "

Going to the communication screen, he punched out the wave-lengthcombination of the naturalist's camp, seventy miles down Snake River fromthe mouth of Cold Creek. Rainsford's screen must have been on automatic;it lit as soon as he was through punching. There was a card set up infront of it, lettered: AWAY ON TRIP, BACK THE FIFTEENTH. RECORDER ON. 

"Ben, Jack Holloway, " he said. "I just ran into something interesting. " Heexplained briefly what it was. "I hope he stays around till you get back. He's totally unlike anything I've ever seen on this planet. "

Little Fuzzy was disappointed when Jack turned off the screen; that hadbeen interesting. He picked him up and carried him over to the armchair, taking him on his lap. 

"Now, " he said, reaching for the control panel of the viewscreen. "Watchthis; we're going to see something nice. "

When he put on the screen, at random, he got a view, from close up, of thegreat fires that were raging where the Company people were burning off thedead forests on what used to be Big Blackwater Swamp. Little Fuzzy criedout in alarm, flung his arms around Pappy Jack's neck and buried his facein the bosom of his shirt. Well, forest fires started from lightningsometimes, and they'd be bad things for a Little Fuzzy. He worked theselector and got another pickup, this time on the top of Company House inMallorysport, three time zones west, with the city spread out below andthe sunset blazing in the west. Little Fuzzy stared at it in wonder. Itwas pretty impressive for a little fellow who'd spent all his life in thebig woods. 

So was the spaceport, and a lot of other things he saw, though a view ofthe planet as a whole from Darius puzzled him considerably. Then, in themiddle of a symphony orchestra concert from Mallorysport Opera House, hewriggled loose, dropped to the floor and caught up his wood chisel, swinging it back over his shoulder like a two-handed sword. 

"What the devil? Oh-oh!"

A land-prawn, which must have gotten in while the door was open, wascrossing the living room. Little Fuzzy ran after and past it, pivoted andbrought the corner of the chisel edge down on the prawn's neck, neatlybeheading it. He looked at his victim for a moment, then slid the chiselunder it and flopped it over on its back, slapping it twice with the flatand cracking the undershell. The he began pulling the dead prawn apart, tearing out pieces of meat and eating them delicately. After disposing ofthe larger chunks, he used the chisel to chop off one of the prawn'smandibles to use as a pick to get at the less accessible morsels. When hehad finished, he licked his fingers clean and started back to thearmchair. 

"No. " Jack pointed at the prawn shell. "Wastebasket. "

"Yeek?"

"Wastebasket. "

Little Fuzzy gathered up the bits of shell, putting them where theybelonged. Then he came back and climbed up on Pappy Jack's lap, and lookedat things in the screen until he fell asleep. 

Jack lifted him carefully and put him down on the warm chair seat withoutwakening him, then went to the kitchen, poured himself a drink and broughtit in to the big table, where he lit his pipe and began writing up hisdiary for the day. After a while, Little Fuzzy woke, found that the lap hehad gone to sleep on had vanished, and yeeked disconsolately. 

A folded blanket in one corner of the bedroom made a satisfactory bed, once Little Fuzzy had assured himself that there were no bugs in it. Hebrought in his bottle and his plastic box and put them on the floor besideit. Then he ran to the front door in the living room and yeeked to be letout. Going about twenty feet from the house, he used the chisel to dig asmall hole, and after it had served its purpose he filled it in carefullyand came running back. 

Well, maybe Fuzzies were naturally gregarious, and werehomemakers--den-holes, or nests, or something like that. Nobody wantsmesses made in the house, and when the young ones did it, their parentswould bang them around to teach them better manners. This was LittleFuzzy's home now; he knew how he ought to behave in it. 

 * * * * *

The next morning at daylight, he was up on the bed, trying to dig PappyJack out from under the blankets. Besides being a most efficientland-prawn eradicator, he made a first rate alarm clock. But best of all, he was Pappy Jack's Little Fuzzy. He wanted out; this time Jack took hismovie camera and got the whole operation on film. One thing, there'd haveto be a little door, with a spring to hold it shut, that little Fuzzycould operate himself. That was designed during breakfast. It only took acouple of hours to make and install it; Little Fuzzy got the idea as soonas he saw it, and figured out how to work it for himself. 

Jack went back to the workshop, built a fire on the hand forge and forgeda pointed and rather broad blade, four inches long, on the end of a footof quarter-inch round tool-steel. It was too point-heavy when finished, sohe welded a knob on the other end to balance it. Little Fuzzy knew whatthat was for right away; running outside, he dug a couple of practiceholes with it, and then began casting about in the grass for land-prawns. 

Jack followed him with the camera and got movies of a couple of prawnkillings, accomplished with smooth, by-the-numbers precision. Little Fuzzyhadn't learned that chop-clap-clap routine in the week since he had foundthe wood chisel. 

Going into the shed, he hunted for something without more than a generalidea of what it would look like, and found it where Little Fuzzy haddiscarded it when he found the chisel. It was a stock of hardwood a footlong, rubbed down and polished smooth, apparently with sandstone. Therewas a paddle at one end, with enough of an edge to behead a prawn, and theother end had been worked to a point. He took it into the living hut andsat down at the desk to examine it with a magnifying glass. Bits of soilembedded in the sharp end--that had been used as a pick. The paddle endhad been used as a shovel, beheader and shell-cracker. Little Fuzzy hadknown exactly what he wanted when he'd started making that thing, he'dkept on until it was as perfect as possible, and had stopped short ofspoiling it by overrefinement. 

Finally, Jack put it away in the top drawer of the desk. He was thinkingabout what to get for lunch when Little Fuzzy burst into the living room, clutching his new weapon and yeeking excitedly. 

"What's the matter, kid? You got troubles?" He rose and went to thegunrack, picking down a rifle and checking the chamber. "Show Pappy Jackwhat it is. "

Little Fuzzy followed him to the big door for human-type people, ready tobolt back inside if necessary. 

The trouble was a harpy--a thing about the size and general design of aTerran Jurassic pterodactyl, big enough to take a Little Fuzzy at onemouthful. It must have made one swoop at him already, and was circlingback for another. It ran into a 6-mm rifle bullet, went into a backwardloop and dropped like a stone. 

Little Fuzzy made a very surprised remark, looked at the dead harpy for amoment and then spotted the ejected empty cartridge. He grabbed it andheld it up, asking if he could have it. When told that he could, he ranback to the bedroom with it. When he returned, Pappy Jack picked him upand carried him to the hangar and up into the control cabin of themanipulator. 

The throbbing of the contragravity-field generator and the sense of risingworried him at first, but after they had picked up the harpy with thegrapples and risen to five hundred feet he began to enjoy the ride. Theydropped the harpy a couple of miles up what the latest maps weredesignating as Holloway's Run, and then made a wide circle back over themountains. Little Fuzzy thought it was fun. 

After lunch, Little Fuzzy had a nap on Pappy Jack's bed. Jack took themanipulator up to the diggings, put off a couple more shots, uncoveredmore flint and found another sunstone. It wasn't often that he foundstones on two successive days. When he returned to the camp, Little Fuzzywas picking another land-prawn apart in front of the living hut. 

After dinner--Little Fuzzy liked cooked food, too, if it wasn't toohot--they went into the living room. He remembered having seen a bolt andnut in the desk drawer when he had been putting the wooden prawn-killeraway, and he got it out, showing it to Little Fuzzy. Little Fuzzy studiedit for a moment, then ran into the bedroom and came back with hisscrew-top bottle. He took the top off, put it on again and then screwedthe nut off the bolt, holding it up. 

"See, Pappy?" Or yeeks to that effect. "Nothing to it. "

Then he unscrewed the bottle top, dropped the bolt inside after replacingthe nut and screwed the cap on again. 

"Yeek, " he said, with considerable self-satisfaction. 

He had a right to be satisfied with himself. What he'd been doing had beengeneralizing. Bottle tops and nuts belonged to the general class ofthings-that-screwed-onto-things. To take them off, you turned left; to putthem on again, you turned right, after making sure that the threadsengaged. And since he could conceive of right- and left-handedness, thatmight mean that he could think of properties apart from objects, and thatwas forming abstract ideas. Maybe that was going a little far, but. .. . 

"You know, Pappy Jack's got himself a mighty smart Little Fuzzy. Are you agrown-up Little Fuzzy, or are you just a baby Little Fuzzy? Shucks, I'llbet you're Professor Doctor Fuzzy. "

He wondered what to give the professor, if that was what he was, to workon next, and he doubted the wisdom of teaching him too much about takingthings apart, just at present. Sometime he might come home and findsomething important taken apart, or, worse, taken apart and put togetherincorrectly. Finally, he went to a closet, rummaging in it until he founda tin canister. By the time he returned, Little Fuzzy had gotten up on thechair, found his pipe in the ashtray and was puffing on it and coughing. 

"Hey, I don't think that's good for you!"

He recovered the pipe, wiped the stem on his shirt-sleeve and put it inhis mouth, then placed the canister on the floor, and put Little Fuzzy onthe floor beside it. There were about ten pounds of stones in it. When hehad first settled here, he had made a collection of the local minerals, and, after learning what he'd wanted to, he had thrown them out, all buttwenty or thirty of the prettiest specimens. He was glad, now, that he hadkept these. 

Little Fuzzy looked the can over, decided that the lid was a member ofthe class of things-that-screwed-onto-things and got it off. The insideof the lid was mirror-shiny, and it took him a little thought to discoverthat what he saw in it was only himself. He yeeked about that, and lookedinto the can. This, he decided, belonged to the class ofthings-that-can-be-dumped, like wastebaskets, so he dumped it on thefloor. Then he began examining the stones and sorting them by color. 

Except for an interest in colorful views on the screen, this was the firstreal evidence that Fuzzies possessed color perception. He proceeded togive further and more impressive proof, laying out the stones by shade, incorrect spectral order, from a lump of amethystlike quartz to a dark redstone. Well, maybe he'd seen rainbows. Maybe he'd lived near a big mistywaterfall, where there was always a rainbow when the sun was shining. Ormaybe that was just his natural way of seeing colors. 

Then, when he saw what he had to work with, he began making arrangementswith them, laying them out in odd circular and spiral patterns. Each timehe finished a pattern, he would yeek happily to call attention to it, sitand look at it for a while, and then take it apart and start a new one. Little Fuzzy was capable of artistic gratification too. He made uselessthings, just for the pleasure of making and looking at them. 

Finally, he put the stones back into the tin, put the lid on and rolled itinto the bedroom, righting it beside his bed along with his othertreasures. The new weapon he laid on the blanket beside him when he wentto bed. 

 * * * * *

The next morning, Jack broke up a whole cake of Extee Three and put itdown, filled the bowl with water, and, after making sure he had leftnothing lying around that Little Fuzzy could damage or on which he mighthurt himself, took the manipulator up to the diggings. He worked allmorning, cracking nearly a ton and a half of flint, and found nothing. Then he set off a string of shots, brought down an avalanche of sandstoneand exposed more flint, and sat down under a pool-ball tree to eat hislunch. 

Half an hour after he went back to work, he found the fossil of somejellyfish that hadn't eaten the right things in the right combinations, but a little later, he found four nodules, one after another, and two ofthem were sunstones; four or five chunks later, he found a third. Why, this must be the Dying Place of the Jellyfish! By late afternoon, when hehad cleaned up all his loose flint, he had nine, including one deep redmonster an inch in diameter. There must have been some connection currentin the ancient ocean that had swirled them all into this one place. Heconsidered setting off some more shots, decided that it was too late andreturned to camp. 

"Little Fuzzy!" he called, opening the living-room door. "Where are you, Little Fuzzy? Pappy Jack's rich; we're going to celebrate!"

Silence. He called again; still no reply or scamper of feet. Probablycleaned up all the prawns around the camp and went hunting farther outinto the woods, thought Jack. Unbuckling his gun and dropping it onto thetable, he went out to the kitchen. Most of the Extee Three was gone. Inthe bedroom, he found that Little Fuzzy had dumped the stones out of thebiscuit tin and made an arrangement, and laid the wood chisel in a neatdiagonal across the blanket. 

After getting dinner assembled and in the oven, he went out and called fora while, then mixed a highball and took it into the living room, sittingdown with it to go over his day's findings. Rather incredulously, herealized that he had cracked out at least seventy-five thousand sols'worth of stones today. He put them into the bag and sat sipping thehighball and thinking pleasant thoughts until the bell on the stove warnedhim that dinner was ready. 

He ate alone--after all the years he had been doing that contentedly, ithad suddenly become intolerable--and in the evening he dialed through hismicro-film library, finding only books he had read and reread a dozentimes, or books he kept for reference. Several times he thought he heardthe little door open, but each time he was mistaken. Finally he went tobed. 

As soon as he woke, he looked across at the folded blanket, but the woodchisel was still lying athwart it. He put down more Extee Three andchanged the water in the bowl before leaving for the diggings. That day hefound three more sunstones, and put them in the bag mechanically andwithout pleasure. He quit work early and spent over an hour spiralingaround the camp, but saw nothing. The Extee Three in the kitchen wasuntouched. 

Maybe the little fellow ran into something too big for him, even with hisfine new weapon--a hobthrush, or a bush-goblin, or another harpy. Or maybehe'd just gotten tired staying in one place, and had moved on. 

No; he'd liked it here. He'd had fun, and been happy. He shook his headsadly. Once he, too, had lived in a pleasant place, where he'd had fun, and could have been happy if he hadn't thought there was something he'dhad to do. So he had gone away, leaving grieved people behind him. Maybethat was how it was with Little Fuzzy. Maybe he didn't realize how much ofa place he had made for himself here, or how empty he was leaving it. 

He started for the kitchen to get a drink, and checked himself. Take adrink because you pity yourself, and then the drink pities you and has adrink, and then two good drinks get together and that calls for drinks allaround. No; he'd have one drink, maybe a little bigger than usual, beforehe went to bed. 

III

He started awake, rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. Past twenty-twohundred; now it really was time for a drink, and then to bed. He rosestiffly and went out to the kitchen, pouring the whisky and bringing it into the table desk, where he sat down and got out his diary. He was almostfinished with the day's entry when the little door behind him opened and asmall voice said, "Yeeek. " He turned quickly. 

"Little Fuzzy?"

The small sound was repeated, impatiently. Little Fuzzy was holding thedoor open, and there was an answer from outside. Then another Fuzzy camein, and another; four of them, one carrying a tiny, squirming ball ofwhite fur in her arms. They all had prawn-killers like the one in thedrawer, and they stopped just inside the room and gaped about them inbewilderment. Then, laying down his weapon, Little Fuzzy ran to him;stooping from the chair, he caught him and then sat down on the floor withhim. 

"So that's why you ran off and worried Pappy Jack? You wanted your familyhere, too!"

The others piled the things they were carrying with Little Fuzzy's steelweapon and approached hesitantly. He talked to them, and so did LittleFuzzy--at least it sounded like that--and finally one came over andfingered his shirt, and then reached up and pulled his mustache. Soon allof them were climbing onto him, even the female with the baby. It wassmall enough to sit on his palm, but in a minute it had climbed to hisshoulder, and then it was sitting on his head. 

"You people want dinner?" he asked. 

Little Fuzzy yeeked emphatically; that was a word he recognized. He tookthem all into the kitchen and tried them on cold roast veldbeest andyummiyams and fried pool-ball fruit; while they were eating from a coupleof big pans, he went back to the living room to examine the things theyhad brought with them. Two of the prawn-killers were wood, like the oneLittle Fuzzy had discarded in the shed. A third was of horn, beautifullypolished, and the fourth looked as though it had been made from theshoulder bone of something like a zebralope. Then there was a small _coupde poing_ ax, rather low paleolithic, and a chipped implement of flint theshape of a slice of orange and about five inches along the straight edge. For a hand the size of his own, he would have called it a scraper. Hepuzzled over it for a while, noticed that the edge was serrated, anddecided that it was a saw. And there were three very good flake knives, and some shells, evidently drinking vessels. 

Mamma Fuzzy came in while he was finishing the examination. She seemedsuspicious, until she saw that none of the family property had been takenor damaged. Baby Fuzzy was clinging to her fur with one hand and holding aslice of pool-ball fruit, on which he was munching, with the other. Hecrammed what was left of the fruit into his mouth, climbed up on Jack andsat down on his head again. Have to do something to break him of that. Oneof these days, he'd be getting too big for it. 

In a few minutes, the rest of the family came in, chasing and pummelingeach other and yeeking happily. Mamma jumped off his lap and joined thefree-for-all, and then Baby took off from his head and landed on Mamma'sback. And he thought he'd lost his Little Fuzzy, and, gosh, here he hadfive Fuzzies and a Baby Fuzzy. When they were tired romping, he made bedsfor them in the living room, and brought out Little Fuzzy's bedding andhis treasures. One Little Fuzzy in the bedroom was just fine; five and aBaby Fuzzy were a little too much of a good thing. 

They were swarming over the bed, Baby and all, to waken him the nextmorning. 

 * * * * *

The next morning he made a steel chopper-digger for each of them, and halfa dozen extras for replacements in case more Fuzzies showed up. He alsomade a miniature ax with a hardwood handle, a handsaw out of a piece ofbroken power-saw blade and half a dozen little knives forged in one piecefrom quarter-inch coil-spring material. He had less trouble trading theFuzzies' own things away from them than he had expected. They had a verykeen property sense, but they knew a good deal when one was offered. Heput the wooden and horn and bone and stone artifacts away in the deskdrawer. Start of the Holloway Collection of Zarathustran Fuzzy Weapons andImplements. Maybe he'd will it to the Federation Institute ofXeno-Sciences. 

Of course, the family had to try out the new chopper-diggers onland-prawns, and he followed them around with the movie camera. Theykilled a dozen and a half that morning, and there was very little interestin lunch, though they did sit around nibbling, just to be doing what hewas doing. As soon as they finished, they all went in for a nap on hisbed. He spent the afternoon pottering about camp doing odd jobs that hehad been postponing for months. The Fuzzies all emerged in the lateafternoon for a romp in the grass outside. 

He was in the kitchen, getting dinner, when they all came pelting inthrough the little door into the living room, making an excited outcry. Little Fuzzy and one of the other males came into the kitchen. LittleFuzzy squatted, put one hand on his lower jaw, with thumb and littlefinger extended, and the other on his forehead, first finger upright. Thenhe thrust out his right arm stiffly and made a barking noise of a sort hehad never made before. He had to do it a second time before Jack got it. 

There was a large and unpleasant carnivore, called a damnthing--anotherexample of zoological nomenclature on uninhabited planets--which had asingle horn on its forehead and one on either side of the lower jaw. Itwas something for Fuzzies, and even for human-type people, to get excitedabout. He laid down the paring knife and the yummiyam he had been peeling, wiped his hands and went into the living room, taking a quick nose countand satisfying himself that none of the family were missing as he crossedto the gunrack. 

This time, instead of the 6-mm he had used on the harpy, he lifted down abig 12. 7 double express, making sure that it was loaded and pocketing afew spare rounds. Little Fuzzy followed him outside, pointing around theliving hut to the left. The rest of the family stayed indoors. 

Stepping out about twenty feet, he started around counter-clockwise. Therewas no damnthing on the north side, and he was about to go around to theeast side when Little Fuzzy came dashing past him, pointing to the rear. He whirled, to see the damnthing charging him from behind, head down, andmiddle horn lowered. He should have thought of that; damnthings woulddouble and hunt their hunters. 

He lined the sights instinctively and squeezed. The big rifle roared andbanged his shoulder, and the bullet caught the damnthing and hurled allhalf-ton of it backward. The second shot caught it just below one of thefungoid-looking ears, and the beast gave a spasmodic all-over twitch andwas still. He reloaded mechanically, but there was no need for a thirdshot. The damnthing was as dead as he would have been except for LittleFuzzy's warning. 

He mentioned that to Little Fuzzy, who was calmly retrieving the emptycartridges. Then, rubbing his shoulder where the big rifle had poundedhim, he went in and returned the weapon to the rack. He used themanipulator to carry the damnthing away from the camp and drop it into atreetop, where it would furnish a welcome if puzzling treat for theharpies. 

 * * * * *

There was another alarm in the evening after dinner. The family had come infrom their sunset romp and were gathered in the living room, where LittleFuzzy was demonstrating the principle of things-that-screwed-onto-thingswith the wide-mouthed bottle and the bolt and nut, when something hugebegan hooting directly overhead. They all froze, looking up at the ceiling, and then ran over and got under the gunrack. This must be something farmore serious than a damnthing, and what Pappy Jack would do about it wouldbe nothing short of catastrophic. They were startled to see Pappy Jackmerely go to the door, open it and step outside. After all, none of themhad ever heard a Constabulary aircar klaxon before. 

The car settled onto the grass in front of the camp, gave a slight lurchand went off contragravity. Two men in uniform got out, and in themoonlight he recognized both of them: Lieutenant George Lunt and hisdriver, Ahmed Khadra. He called a greeting to them. 

"Anything wrong?" he asked. 

"No; just thought we'd drop in and see how you were making out, " Lunt toldhim. "We don't get up this way often. Haven't had any trouble lately, haveyou?"

"Not since the last time. " The last time had been a couple of woodstramps, out-of-work veldbeest herders from the south, who had heard aboutthe little bag he carried around his neck. All the Constabulary had neededto do was remove the bodies and write up a report. "Come on in and hang upyour guns awhile. I have something I want to show you. "

Little Fuzzy had come out and was pulling at his trouser leg; he stoopedand picked him up, setting him on his shoulder. The rest of the family, deciding that it must be safe, had come to the door and were looking out. 

"Hey! What the devil are those things?" Lunt asked, stopping short halfwayfrom the car. 

"Fuzzies. Mean to tell me you've never seen Fuzzies before?"

"No, I haven't. What are they?"

The two Constabulary men came closer, and Jack stepped back into thehouse, shooing the Fuzzies out of the way. Lunt and Khadra stopped insidethe door. 

"I just told you. They're Fuzzies. That's all the name I know for them. "

A couple of Fuzzies came over and looked up at Lieutenant Lunt; one ofthem said, "Yeek?"

"They want to know what you are, so that makes it mutual. "

Lunt hesitated for a moment, then took off his belt and holster and hungit on one of the pegs inside the door, putting his beret over it. Khadrafollowed his example promptly. That meant that they considered themselvestemporarily off duty and would accept a drink if one were offered. A Fuzzywas pulling at Ahmed Khadra's trouser leg and asking to be noticed, andMamma Fuzzy was holding Baby up to show to Lunt. Khadra, ratherhesitantly, picked up the Fuzzy who was trying to attract his attention. 

"Never saw anything like them before Jack, " he said. "Where did they comefrom?"

"Ahmed; you don't know anything about those things, " Lunt reproved. 

"They won't hurt me, Lieutenant; they haven't hurt Jack, have they?" Hesat down on the floor, and a couple more came to him. "Why don't you getacquainted with them? They're cute. "

George Lunt wouldn't let one of his men do anything he was afraid to do;he sat down on the floor, too, and Mamma brought her baby to him. Immediately, the baby jumped onto his shoulder and tried to get onto hishead. 

"Relax, George, " Jack told him, "They're just Fuzzies; they want to makefriends with you. "

"I'm always worried about strange life forms, " Lunt said. "You've beenaround enough to know some of the things that have happened--"

"They are not a strange life form; they are Zarathustran mammals. The samelife form you've had for dinner every day since you came here. Theirbiochemistry's identical with ours. Think they'll give you the Polka-DotPlague, or something?" He put Little Fuzzy down on the floor with theothers. "We've been exploring this planet for twenty-five years, andnobody's found anything like that here. "

"You said it yourself, Lieutenant, " Khadra put in. "Jack's been aroundenough to know. "

"Well. .. . They are cute little fellows. " Lunt lifted Baby down off hishead and gave him back to Mamma. Little Fuzzy had gotten hold of the chainof his whistle and was trying to find out what was on the other end. "Betthey're a lot of company for you. "

"You just get acquainted with them. Make yourselves at home; I'll gorustle up some refreshments. "

While he was in the kitchen, filling a soda siphon and getting ice out ofthe refrigerator, a police whistle began shrilling in the living room. Hewas opening a bottle of whisky when Little Fuzzy came dashing out, blowingon it, a couple more of the family pursuing him and trying to get it awayfrom him. He opened a tin of Extee Three for the Fuzzies, as he did, another whistle in the living room began blowing. 

"We have a whole shoebox full of them at the post, " Lunt yelled to himabove the din. "We'll just write these two off as expended in service. "

"Well, that's real nice of you, George. I want to tell you that theFuzzies appreciate that. Ahmed, suppose you do the bartending while I givethe kids their candy. "

By the time Khadra had the drinks mixed and he had distributed the ExteeThree to the Fuzzies, Lunt had gotten into the easy chair, and the Fuzzieswere sitting on the floor in front of him, still looking him overcuriously. At least the Extee Three had taken their minds off the whistlesfor a while. 

"What I want to know, Jack, is where they came from, " Lunt said, takinghis drink. "I've been up here for five years, and I never saw anythinglike them before. "

"I've been here five years longer, and I never saw them before, either. Ithink they came down from the north, from the country between theCordilleras and the West Coast Range. Outside of an air survey at tenthousand feet and a few spot landings here and there, none of that countryhas been explored. For all anybody knows, it could be full of Fuzzies. "

He began with his first encounter with Little Fuzzy, and by the time hehad gotten as far as the wood chisel and the killing of the land-prawn, Lunt and Khadra were looking at each other in amazement. 

"That's it!" Khadra said. "I've found prawn-shells cracked open and themeat picked out, just the way you describe it. I always wondered what didthat. But they don't all have wood chisels. What do you suppose they usedordinarily?"

"Ah!" He pulled the drawer open and began getting things out. "Here's theone Little Fuzzy discarded when he found my chisel. The rest of this stuffthe others brought in when they came. "

Lunt and Khadra rose and came over to look at the things. Lunt tried toargue that the Fuzzies couldn't have made that stuff. He wasn't even ableto convince himself. Having finished their Extee Three, the Fuzzies werelooking expectantly at the viewscreen, and it occurred to him that none ofthem except Little Fuzzy had ever seen it on. Then Little Fuzzy jumped upon the chair Lunt had vacated, reached over to the control-panel andswitched it on. What he got was an empty stretch of moonlit plain to thesouth, from a pickup on one of the steel towers the veldbeest herdersused. That wasn't very interesting; he twiddled the selector and finallygot a night soccer game at Mallorysport. That was just fine; he jumpeddown and joined the others in front of the screen. 

"I've seen Terran monkeys and Freyan Kholphs that liked to watch screensand could turn them on and work the selector, " Lunt said. It sounded likethe token last salvo before the surrender. 

"Kholphs are smart, " Khadra agreed. "They use tools. "

"Do they make tools? Or tools to make tools with, like that saw?" Therewas no argument on that. "No. Nobody does that except people like us andthe Fuzzies. "

It was the first time he had come right out and said that; the first timehe had even consciously thought it. He realized that he had been convincedof it all along, though. It startled the constabulary lieutenant andtrooper. 

"You mean you think--?" Lunt began. 

"They don't talk, and they don't build fires, " Ahmed Khadra said, asthough that settled it. 

"Ahmed, you know better than that. That talk-and-build-a-fire rule isn'tany scientific test at all. "

"It's a legal test. " Lunt supported his subordinate. 

"It's a rule-of-thumb that was set up so that settlers on new planetscouldn't get away with murdering and enslaving the natives by claimingthey thought they were only hunting and domesticating wild animals, " hesaid. "Anything that talks and builds a fire is a sapient being, yes. That's the law. But that doesn't mean that anything that doesn't isn't. Ihaven't seen any of this gang building fires, and as I don't want to comehome sometime and find myself burned out, I'm not going to teach them. ButI'm sure they have means of communication among themselves. "

"Has Ben Rainsford seen them yet?" Lunt asked. 

"Ben's off on a trip somewhere. I called him as soon as Little Fuzzy, overthere, showed up here. He won't be back till Friday. "

"Yes, that's right; I did know that. " Lunt was still looking dubiously atthe Fuzzies. "I'd like to hear what he thinks about them. "

If Ben said they were safe, Lunt would accept that. Ben was an expert, andLunt respected expert testimony. Until then, he wasn't sure. He'd probablyorder a medical check-up for himself and Khadra the first thing tomorrow, to make sure they hadn't picked up some kind of bug. 

IV

The Fuzzies took the manipulator quite calmly the next morning. Thatwasn't any horrible monster, that was just something Pappy Jack took ridesin. He found one rather indifferent sunstone in the morning and two goodones in the afternoon. He came home early and found the family in theliving room; they had dumped the wastebasket and were putting things backinto it. Another land-prawn seemed to have gotten into the house; itspicked shell was with the other rubbish in the basket. They had dinnerearly, and he loaded the lot of them into the airjeep and took them for along ride to the south and west. 

The following day, he located the flint vein on the other side of thegorge and spent most of the morning blasting away the sandstone above it. The next time he went into Mallorysport, he decided, he was going to shoparound for a good power-shovel. He had to blast a channel to keep thelittle stream from damming up on him. He didn't get any flint cracked atall that day. There was another harpy circling around the camp when he gotback; he chased it with the manipulator and shot it down with his pistol. Harpies probably found Fuzzies as tasty as Fuzzies found land-prawns. Thefamily were all sitting under the gunrack when he entered the living room. 

The next day he cracked flint, and found three more stones. It reallylooked as though he had found the Dying Place of the Jellyfish at that. Heknocked off early that afternoon, and when he came in sight of the camp, he saw an airjeep grounded on the lawn and a small man with a red beard ina faded Khaki bush-jacket sitting on the bench by the kitchen door, surrounded by Fuzzies. There was a camera and some other equipment laid upwhere the Fuzzies couldn't get at it. Baby Fuzzy, of course, was sittingon his head. He looked up and waved, and then handed Baby to his motherand rose to his feet. 

"Well, what do you think of them, Ben?" Jack called down, as he groundedthe manipulator. 

"My God, don't start me on that now!" Ben Rainsford replied, and thenlaughed. "I stopped at the constabulary post on the way home. I thoughtGeorge Lunt had turned into the biggest liar in the known galaxy. Then Iwent home, and found your call on the recorder, so I came over here. "

"Been waiting long?"

The Fuzzies had all abandoned Rainsford and come trooping over as soon asthe manipulator was off contragravity. He climbed down among them, andthey followed him across the grass, catching at his trouser legs andyeeking happily. 

"Not so long. " Rainsford looked at his watch. "Good Lord, three and halfhours is all. Well, the time passed quickly. You know, your little fellowshave good ears. They heard you coming a long time before I did. "

"Did you see them killing any prawns?"

"I should say! I got a lot of movies of it. " He shook his head slowly. "Jack, this is almost incredible. "

"You're staying for dinner, of course?"

"You try and chase me away. I want to hear all about this. Want you tomake a tape about them, if you're willing. "

"Glad to. We'll do that after we eat. " He sat down on the bench, and theFuzzies began climbing upon and beside him. "This is the original, LittleFuzzy. He brought the rest in a couple of days later. Mamma Fuzzy, andBaby Fuzzy. And these are Mike and Mitzi. I call this one Ko-Ko, becauseof the ceremonious way he beheads land-prawns. "

"George says you call them all Fuzzies. Want that for the officialdesignation?"

"Sure. That's what they are, isn't it?"

"Well, let's call the order Hollowayans, " Rainsford said. "Family, Fuzzies; genus, Fuzzy. Species, Holloway's Fuzzy--_Fuzzy fuzzy holloway_. How'll that be?"

That would be all right, he supposed. At least, they didn't try toLatinize things in extraterrestrial zoology any more. 

"I suppose our bumper crop of land-prawns is what brought them into thissection?"

"Yes, of course. George was telling me you thought they'd come down fromthe north; about the only place they could have come from. This isprobably just the advance guard; we'll be having Fuzzies all over theplace before long. I wonder how fast they breed. "

"Not very fast. Three males and two females in this crowd, and only oneyoung one. " He set Mike and Mitzi off his lap and got to his feet. "I'llgo start dinner now. While I'm doing that, you can look at the stuff theybrought in with them. "

When he had placed the dinner in the oven and taken a couple of highballsinto the living room, Rainsford was still sitting at the desk, looking atthe artifacts. He accepted his drink and sipped it absently, then raisedhis head. 

"Jack, this stuff is absolutely amazing, " he said. 

"It's better than that. It's unique. Only collection of native weapons andimplements on Zarathustra. "

Ben Rainsford looked up sharply. "You mean what I think you mean?" heasked. "Yes; you do. " He drank some of his highball, set down the glassand picked up the polished-horn prawn-killer. "Anything--pardon, anybody--who does this kind of work is good enough native for me. " Hehesitated briefly. "Why, Jack this tape you said you'd make. Can Itransmit a copy to Juan Jimenez? He's chief mammalogist with the Companyscience division; we exchange information. And there's another Company manI'd like to have hear it. Gerd van Riebeek. He's a generalxeno-naturalist, like me, but he's especially interested in animalevolution. "

"Why not? The Fuzzies are a scientific discovery. Discoveries ought to bereported. "

Little Fuzzy, Mike and Mitzi strolled in from the kitchen. Little Fuzzyjumped up on the armchair and switched on the viewscreen. Fiddling withthe selector, he got the Big Blackwater woods-burning. Mike and Mitzishrieked delightedly, like a couple of kids watching a horror show. Theyknew, by now, that nothing in the screen could get out and hurt them. 

"Would you mind if they came out here and saw the Fuzzies?"

"Why, the Fuzzies would love that. They like company. "

Mamma and Baby and Ko-Ko came in, seemed to approve what was on the screenand sat down to watch it. When the bell on the stove rang, they all gotup, and Ko-Ko jumped onto the chair and snapped the screen off. BenRainsford looked at him for a moment. 

"You know, I have married friends with children who have a hell of a timeteaching eight-year-olds to turn off screens when they're through watchingthem, " he commented. 

 * * * * *

It took an hour, after dinner, to get the whole story, from the firstlittle yeek in the shower stall, on tape. When he had finished, BenRainsford made a few remarks and shut off the recorder, then looked at hiswatch. 

"Twenty hundred; it'll be seventeen hundred in Mallorysport, " he said. "Icould catch Jimenez at Science Center if I called now. He usually works alittle late. "

"Go ahead. Want to show him some Fuzzies?" He moved his pistol and someother impedimenta off the table and set Little Fuzzy and Mamma Fuzzy andBaby upon it, then drew up a chair beside it, in range of thecommunication screen, and sat down with Mike and Mitzi and Ko-Ko. Rainsford punched out a wavelength combination. Then he picked up BabyFuzzy and set him on his head. 

In a moment, the screen flickered and cleared, and a young man looked outof it, with the momentary upward glance of one who wants to make sure hispublic face is on straight. It was a bland, tranquilized, life-adjusted, group-integrated sort of face--the face turned out in thousands of copiesevery year by the educational production lines on Terra. 

"Why, Bennett, this is a pleasant surprise, " he began. "I never expec--"Then he choked; at least, he emitted a sound of surprise. "What in thename of Dai-Butsu are those things on the table in front of you?" hedemanded. "I never saw anything--_And what is that on your head?_"

"Family group of Fuzzies, " Rainsford said. "Mature male, mature female, immature male. " He lifted Baby Fuzzy down and put him in Mamma's arms. "Species _Fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra_. The gentleman on my left isJack Holloway, the sunstone operator, who is the original discoverer. Jack, Juan Jimenez. "

They shook their own hands at one another in the ancient Terran-Chinesegesture that was used on communication screens, and assured eachother--Jimenez rather absently--that it was a pleasure. He couldn't takehis eyes off the Fuzzies. 

"Where did they come from?" he wanted to know. "Are you sure they'reindigenous?"

"They're not quite up to spaceships, yet, Dr. Jimenez. Fairly earlyPaleolithic, I'd say. "

Jimenez thought he was joking, and laughed. The sort of a laugh that couldbe turned on and off, like a light. Rainsford assured him that the Fuzzieswere really indigenous. 

"We have everything that's known about them on tape, " he said. "About anhour of it. Can you take sixty-speed?" He was making adjustments on therecorder as he spoke. "All right, set and we'll transmit to you. And canyou get hold of Gerd van Riebeek? I'd like him to hear it too; it's asmuch up his alley as anybody's. "

When Jimenez was ready, Rainsford pressed the play-off button, and for aminute the recorder gave a high, wavering squeak. The Fuzzies all lookedstartled. Then it ended. 

"I think, when you hear this, that you and Gerd will both want to come outand see these little people. If you can, bring somebody who's a qualifiedpsychologist, somebody capable of evaluating the Fuzzies' mentation. Jackwasn't kidding about early Paleolithic. If they're not sapient, they onlymiss it by about one atomic diameter. "

Jimenez looked almost as startled as the Fuzzies had. "You surely don'tmean that?" He looked from Rainsford to Jack Holloway and back. "Well, I'll call you back, when we've both heard the tape. You're three timezones west of us, aren't you? Then we'll try to make it before yourmidnight--that'll be twenty-one hundred. "

He called back half an hour short of that. This time, it was from theliving room of an apartment instead of an office. There was a portablerecord player in the foreground and a low table with snacks and drinks, and two other people were with him. One was a man of about Jimenez's agewith a good-humored, non-life-adjusted, non-group-integrated and slightlyweather-beaten face. The other was a woman with glossy black hair and aMona Lisa-ish smile. The Fuzzies had gotten sleepy, and had been bribedwith Extee Three to stay up a little longer. Immediately, they registeredinterest. This was more fun than the viewscreen. 

Jimenez introduced his companions as Gerd van Riebeek and Ruth Ortheris. "Ruth is with Dr. Mallin's section; she's been working with the schooldepartment and the juvenile court. She can probably do as well with yourFuzzies as a regular xeno-psychologist. "

"Well, I have worked with extraterrestrials, " the woman said. "I've beenon Loki and Thor and Shesha. "

Jack nodded. "Been on the same planets myself. Are you people coming outhere?"

"Oh, yes, " van Riebeek said. "We'll be out by noon tomorrow. We may stay acouple of days, but that won't put you to any trouble; I have a boatthat's big enough for the three of us to camp on. Now, how do we get toyour place?"

Jack told him, and gave map coordinates. Van Riebeek noted them down. 

"There's one thing, though, I'm going to have to get firm about. I don'twant to have to speak about it again. These little people are to betreated with consideration, and not as laboratory animals. You will nothurt them, or annoy them, or force them to do anything they don't want todo. "

"We understand that. We won't do anything with the Fuzzies without yourapproval. Is there anything you'd want us to bring out?"

"Yes. A few things for the camp that I'm short of; I'll pay you for themwhen you get here. And about three cases of Extee Three. And some toys. Dr. Ortheris, you heard the tape, didn't you? Well, just think what you'dlike to have if you were a Fuzzy, and bring it. "

V

Victor Grego crushed out his cigarette slowly and deliberately. 

"Yes, Leonard, " he said patiently. "It's very interesting, and doubtlessan important discovery, but I can't see why you're making such aproduction of it. Are you afraid I'll blame you for letting non-Companypeople beat you to it? Or do you merely suspect that anything BennettRainsford's mixed up in is necessarily a diabolical plot against theCompany and, by consequence, human civilization?"

Leonard Kellogg looked pained. "What I was about to say, Victor, is thatboth Rainsford and this man Holloway seem convinced that these things theycall Fuzzies aren't animals at all. They believe them to be sapientbeings. "

"Well, that's--" He bit that off short as the significance of what Kellogghad just said hit him. "Good God, Leonard! I beg your pardon abjectly; Idon't blame you for taking it seriously. Why, that would make Zarathustraa Class-IV inhabited planet. "

"For which the Company holds a Class-III charter, " Kellogg added. "For anuninhabited planet. "

Automatically void if any race of sapient beings were discovered onZarathustra. 

"You know what will happen if this is true?"

"Well, I should imagine the charter would have to be renegotiated, and nowthat the Colonial Office knows what sort of a planet this is, they'll beanything but generous with the Company. .. . "

"They won't renegotiate anything, Leonard. The Federation government willsimply take the position that the Company has already made an adequatereturn on the original investments, and they'll award us what we can showas in our actual possession--I hope--and throw the rest into the publicdomain. "

The vast plains on Beta and Delta continents, with their herds ofveldbeest--all open range, and every 'beest that didn't carry a Companybrand a maverick. And all the untapped mineral wealth, and the untilledarable land; it would take years of litigation even to make the Company'sclaim to Big Blackwater stick. And Terra-Baldur-Marduk Spacelines wouldlose their monopolistic franchise and get sticky about it in the courts, and in any case, the Company's import-export monopoly would go out theairlock. And the squatters rushing in and swamping everything--

"Why, we won't be any better off than the Yggdrasil Company, squatting ona guano heap on one continent!" he burst out. "Five years from now, they'll be making more money out of bat dung than we'll be making out ofthis whole world!"

And the Company's good friend and substantial stockholder, Nick Emmert, would be out, too, and a Colonial Governor General would move in, withregular army troops and a complicated bureaucracy. Elections, and arepresentative parliament, and every Tom, Dick and Harry with a grudgeagainst the Company would be trying to get laws passed--And, of course, aNative Affairs Commission, with its nose in everything. 

"But they couldn't just leave us without any kind of a charter, " Kellogginsisted. Who was he trying to kid--besides himself? "It wouldn't befair!" As though that clinched it. "It isn't our fault!"

He forced more patience into his voice. "Leonard, please try to realizethat the Terran Federation government doesn't give one shrill soprano hooton Nifflheim whether it's fair or not, or whose fault what is. TheFederation government's been repenting that charter they gave the Companyever since they found out what they'd chartered away. Why, this planet isa better world than Terra ever was, even before the Atomic Wars. Now, ifthey have a chance to get it back, with improvements, you think they won'ttake it? And what will stop them? If those creatures over on BetaContinent are sapient beings, our charter isn't worth the parchment it'sengrossed on, and that's an end of it. " He was silent for a moment. "Youheard that tape Rainsford transmitted to Jimenez. Did either he orHolloway actually claim, in so many words, that these things really aresapient beings?"

"Well, no; not in so many words. Holloway consistently alluded to them aspeople, but he's just an ignorant old prospector. Rainsford wouldn't comeout and commit himself one way or another, but he left the door wide openfor anybody else to. "

"Accepting their account, could these Fuzzies be sapient?"

"Accepting the account, yes, " Kellogg said, in distress. "They could be. "

They probably were, if Leonard Kellogg couldn't wish the evidence out ofexistence. 

"Then they'll look sapient to these people of yours who went over to Betathis morning, and they'll treat it purely as a scientific question andnever consider the legal aspects. Leonard, you'll have to take charge ofthe investigation, before they make any reports everybody'll be sorryfor. "

Kellogg didn't seem to like that. It would mean having to exerciseauthority and getting tough with people, and he hated anything like that. He nodded very reluctantly. 

"Yes. I suppose I will. Let me think about it for a moment, Victor. "

One thing about Leonard; you handed him something he couldn't delegate ordodge and he'd go to work on it. Maybe not cheerfully, butconscientiously. 

"I'll take Ernst Mallin along, " he said at length. "This man Rainsford hasno grounding whatever in any of the psychosciences. He may be able toimpose on Ruth Ortheris, but not on Ernst Mallin. Not after I've talked toMallin first. " He thought some more. "We'll have to get these Fuzzies awayfrom this man Holloway. Then we'll issue a report of discovery, beingcareful to give full credit to both Rainsford and Holloway--we'll evenaccept the designation they've coined for them--but we'll make it veryclear that while highly intelligent, the Fuzzies are not a race of sapientbeings. If Rainsford persists in making any such claim, we will brand itas a deliberate hoax. "

"Do you think he's gotten any report off to the Institute of Xeno-Sciencesyet?"

Kellogg shook his head. "I think he wants to trick some of our people intosupporting his sapience claims; at least, corroborating his and Holloway'salleged observations. That's why I'll have to get over to Beta as soon aspossible. "

By now, Kellogg had managed to convince himself that going over to Betahad been his idea all along. Probably also convincing himself thatRainsford's report was nothing but a pack of lies. Well, if he could workbetter that way, that was his business. 

"He will, before long, if he isn't stopped. And a year from now, there'llbe a small army of investigators here from Terra. By that time, you shouldhave both Rainsford and Holloway thoroughly discredited. Leonard, you getthose Fuzzies away from Holloway and I'll personally guarantee they won'tbe available for investigation by then. Fuzzies, " he said reflectively. "Fur-bearing animals, I take it?"

"Holloway spoke, on the tape, of their soft and silky fur. "

"Good. Emphasize that in your report. As soon as it's published, theCompany will offer two thousand sols apiece for Fuzzy pelts. By the timeRainsford's report brings anybody here from Terra, we may have them alltrapped out. "

Kellogg began to look worried. 

"But, Victor, that's genocide!"

"Nonsense! Genocide is defined as the extermination of a race of sapientbeings. These are fur-bearing animals. It's up to you and Ernst Mallin toprove that. "

 * * * * *

The Fuzzies, playing on the lawn in front of the camp, froze intoimmobility, their faces turned to the west. Then they all ran to the benchby the kitchen door and scrambled up onto it. 

"Now what?" Jack Holloway wondered. 

"They hear the airboat, " Rainsford told him. "That's the way they actedyesterday when you were coming in with your machine. " He looked at thepicnic table they had been spreading under the featherleaf trees. "Everything ready?"

"Everything but lunch; that won't be cooked for an hour yet. I see themnow. "

"You have better eyes than I do, Jack. Oh, I see it. I hope the kids puton a good show for them, " he said anxiously. 

He'd been jittery ever since he arrived, shortly after breakfast. Itwasn't that these people from Mallorysport were so important themselves;Ben had a bigger name in scientific circles than any of this Companycrowd. He was just excited about the Fuzzies. 

The airboat grew from a barely visible speck, and came spiraling down toland in the clearing. When it was grounded and off contragravity, theystarted across the grass toward it, and the Fuzzies all jumped down fromthe bench and ran along with them. 

The three visitors climbed down. Ruth Ortheris wore slacks and a sweater, but the slacks were bloused over a pair of ankle boots. Gerd van Riebeekhad evidently done a lot of field work: his boots were stout, and he woreold, faded khakis and a serviceable-looking sidearm that showed he knewwhat to expect up here in the Piedmont. Juan Jimenez was in the samesports casuals in which he had appeared on screen last evening. All ofthem carried photographic equipment. They shook hands all around andexchanged greetings, and then the Fuzzies began clamoring to be noticed. Finally all of them, Fuzzies and other people drifted over to the tableunder the trees. 

Ruth Ortheris sat down on the grass with Mamma and Baby. Immediately Babybecame interested in a silver charm which she wore on a chain around herneck which tinkled fascinatingly. Then he tried to sit on her head. Shespent some time gently but firmly discouraging this. Juan Jimenez wassquatting between Mike and Mitzi, examining them alternately and talkinginto a miniature recorder phone on his breast, mostly in Latin. Gerd vanRiebeek dropped himself into a folding chair and took Little Fuzzy on hislap. 

"You know, this is kind of surprising, " he said. "Not only findingsomething like this, after twenty-five years, but finding something asunique as this. Look, he doesn't have the least vestige of a tail, andthere isn't another tailless mammal on the planet. Fact, there isn'tanother mammal on this planet that has the slightest kinship to him. Takeourselves; we belong to a pretty big family, about fifty-odd genera ofprimates. But this little fellow hasn't any relatives at all. "

"Yeek?"

"And he couldn't care less, could he?" Van Riebeek pummeled Little Fuzzygently. "One thing, you have the smallest humanoid known; that's onerecord you can claim. Oh-oh, what goes on?"

Ko-Ko, who had climbed upon Rainsford's lap, jumped suddenly to theground, grabbed the chopper-digger he had left beside the chair andstarted across the grass. Everybody got to their feet, the visitorsgetting cameras out. The Fuzzies seemed perplexed by all the excitement. It was only another land-prawn, wasn't it?

Ko-Ko got in front of it, poked it on the nose to stop it and then strucka dramatic pose, flourishing his weapon and bringing it down on theprawn's neck. Then, after flopping it over, he looked at it almost insorrow and hit it a couple of whacks with the flat. He began pulling itapart and eating it. 

"I see why you call him Ko-Ko, " Ruth said, aiming her camera, "Don't theothers do it that way?"

"Well, Little Fuzzy runs along beside them and pivots and gives them aquick chop. Mike and Mitzi flop theirs over first and behead them on theirbacks. And Mamma takes a swipe at their legs first. But beheading andbreaking the undershell, they all do that. "

"Uh-huh; that's basic, " she said. "Instinctive. The technique is eitherself-learned or copied. When Baby begins killing his own prawns, see if hedoesn't do it the way Mamma does!"

"Hey, look!" Jimenez cried. "He's making a lobster pick for himself!"

Through lunch, they talked exclusively about Fuzzies. The subjects of thediscussion nibbled things that were given to them, and yeeked amongthemselves. Gerd van Riebeek suggested that they were discussing the oddhabits of human-type people. Juan Jimenez looked at him, slightlydisturbed, as though wondering just how seriously he meant it. 

"You know, what impressed me most in the taped account was the incident ofthe damnthing, " said Ruth Ortheris. "Any animal associating with man willtry to attract attention if something's wrong, but I never heard of one, not even a Freyan kholph or a Terran chimpanzee, that would usedescriptive pantomime. Little Fuzzy was actually making a symbolicrepresentation, by abstracting the distinguishing characteristic of thedamnthing. "

"Think that stiff-arm gesture and bark might have been intended torepresent a rifle?" Gerd van Riebeek asked. "He'd seen you shootingbefore, hadn't he?"

"I don't think it was anything else. He was telling me, 'Big nastydamnthing outside; shoot it like you did the harpy. ' And if he hadn't runpast me and pointed back, that damnthing would have killed me. "

Jimenez, hesitantly, said, "I know I'm speaking from ignorance. You're theFuzzy expert. But isn't it possible that you're overanthropomorphizing?Endowing them with your own characteristics and mental traits?"

"Juan, I'm not going to answer that right now. I don't think I'll answerat all. You wait till you've been around these Fuzzies a little longer, and then ask it again, only ask yourself. "

 * * * * *

"So you see, Ernst, that's the problem. "

Leonard Kellogg laid the words like a paperweight on the other words hehad been saying, and waited. Ernst Mallin sat motionless, his elbows onthe desk and his chin in his hands. A little pair of wrinkles, likeparentheses, appeared at the corners of his mouth. 

"Yes. I'm not a lawyer, of course, but. .. . "

"It's not a legal question. It's a question for a psychologist. "

That left it back with Ernst Mallin, and he knew it. 

"I'd have to see them myself before I could express an opinion. You havethat tape of Holloway's with you?" When Kellogg nodded, Mallin continued:"Did either of them make any actual, overt claim of sapience?"

He answered it as he had when Victor Grego had asked the same question, adding:

"The account consists almost entirely of Holloway's uncorroboratedstatements concerning things to which he claims to have been the solewitness. "

"Ah. " Mallin permitted himself a tight little smile. "And he's not aqualified observer. Neither, for that matter, is Rainsford. Regardless ofhis position as a xeno-naturalist, he is complete layman in thepsychosciences. He's just taken this other man's statements uncritically. As for what he claims to have observed for himself, how do we know heisn't including a lot of erroneous inferences with his descriptivestatements?"

"How do we know he's not perpetrating a deliberate hoax?"

"But, Leonard, that's a pretty serious accusation. "

"It's happened before. That fellow who carved a Late Upland Martianinscription in that cave in Kenya, for instance. Or Hellermann's claim tohave cross-bred Terran mice with Thoran tilbras. Or the Piltdown Man, backin the first century Pre-Atomic?"

Mallin nodded. "None of us like to think of a thing like that, but, as yousay, it's happened. You know, this man Rainsford is just the type to dosomething like that, too. Fundamentally an individualistic egoist; badlyadjusted personality type. Say he wants to make some sensational discoverywhich will assure him the position in the scientific world to which hebelieves himself entitled. He finds this lonely old prospector, into whoseisolated camp some little animals have strayed. The old man has made petsof them, taught them a few tricks, finally so projected his ownpersonality onto them that he has convinced himself that they are peoplelike himself. This is Rainsford's great opportunity; he will presenthimself as the discoverer of a new sapient race and bring the wholelearned world to his feet. " Mallin smiled again. "Yes, Leonard, it isaltogether possible. "

"Then it's our plain duty to stop this thing before it develops intoanother major scientific scandal like Hellermann's hybrids. "

"First we must go over this tape recording and see what we have on ourhands. Then we must make a thorough, unbiased study of these animals, andshow Rainsford and his accomplice that they cannot hope to foist theseridiculous claims on the scientific world with impunity. If we can'tconvince them privately, there'll be nothing to do but expose thempublicly. "

"I've heard the tape already, but let's play if off now. We want toanalyze these tricks this man Holloway has taught these animals, and seewhat they show. "

"Yes, of course. We must do that at once, " Mallin said. "Then we'll haveto consider what sort of statement we must issue, and what sort ofevidence we will need to support it. "

 * * * * *

After dinner was romptime for Fuzzies on the lawn, but when the dusk camecreeping into the ravine, they all went inside and were given one of theirnew toys from Mallorysport--a big box of many-colored balls and shortsticks of transparent plastic. They didn't know that it was amolecule-model kit, but they soon found that the sticks would go intoholes in the balls, and that they could be built into three-dimensionaldesigns. 

This was much more fun than the colored stones. They made a fewexperimental shapes, then dismantled them and began on a single largedesign. Several times they tore it down, entirely or in part, and beganover again, usually with considerable yeeking and gesticulation. 

"They have artistic sense, " Van Riebeek said. "I've seen lots of abstractsculpture that wasn't half as good as that job they're doing. "

"Good engineering, too, " Jack said. "They understand balance andcenter-of-gravity. They're bracing it well, and not making it top-heavy. "

"Jack, I've been thinking about that question I was supposed to askmyself, " Jimenez said. "You know, I came out here loaded with suspicion. Not that I doubted your honesty; I just thought you'd let your obviousaffection for the Fuzzies lead you into giving them credit for moreintelligence than they possess. Now I think you've consistentlyunderstated it. Short of actual sapience, I've never seen anything likethem. "

"Why short of it?" van Riebeek asked. "Ruth, you've been pretty quiet thisevening. What do you think?"

Ruth Ortheris looked uncomfortable. "Gerd, it's too early to form opinionslike that. I know the way they're working together looks like cooperationon an agreed-upon purpose, but I simply can't make speech out of thatyeek-yeek-yeek. "

"Let's keep the talk-and-build-a-fire rule out of it, " van Riebeek said. "If they're working together on a common project, they must becommunicating somehow. "

"It isn't communication, it's symbolization. You simply can't thinksapiently except in verbal symbols. Try it. Not something like changingthe spools on a recorder or field-stripping a pistol; they're just learnedtricks. I mean ideas. "

"How about Helen Keller?" Rainsford asked. "Mean to say she only startedthinking sapiently after Anna Sullivan taught her what words were?"

"No, of course not. She thought sapiently--And she only thought insense-imagery limited to feeling. " She looked at Rainsford reproachfully;he'd knocked a breach in one of her fundamental postulates. "Of course, she had inherited the cerebroneural equipment for sapient thinking. " Shelet that trail off, before somebody asked her how she knew that theFuzzies hadn't. 

"I'll suggest, just to keep the argument going, that speech couldn't havebeen invented without pre-existing sapience, " Jack said. 

Ruth laughed. "Now you're taking me back to college. That used to be oneof the burning questions in first-year psych students' bull sessions. Bythe time we got to be sophomores, we'd realized that it was only anegg-and-chicken argument and dropped it. "

"That's a pity, " Ben Rainsford said. "It's a good question. "

"It would be if it could be answered. "

"Maybe it can be, " Gerd said. "There's a clue to it, right there. I'll saythat those fellows are on the edge of sapience, and it's an even-money betwhich side. "

"I'll bet every sunstone in my bag they're over. "

"Well, maybe they're just slightly sapient, " Jimenez suggested. 

Ruth Ortheris hooted at that. "That's like talking about being justslightly dead or just slightly pregnant, " she said. "You either are or youaren't. "

Gerd van Riebeek was talking at the same time. "This sapience question isjust as important in my field as yours, Ruth. Sapience is the result ofevolution by natural selection, just as much as a physical characteristic, and it's the most important step in the evolution of any species, our ownincluded. "

"Wait a minute, Gerd, " Rainsford said. "Ruth, what do you mean by that?Aren't there degrees of sapience?"

"No. There are degrees of mentation--intelligence, if you prefer--just asthere are degrees of temperature. When psychology becomes an exact sciencelike physics, we'll be able to calibrate mentation like temperature. Butsapience is qualitatively different from nonsapience. It's more than justa higher degree of mental temperature. You might call it a sort of mentalboiling point. "

"I think that's a damn good analogy, " Rainsford said. "But what happenswhen the boiling point is reached?"

"That's what we have to find out, " van Riebeek told him. "That's what Iwas talking about a moment ago. We don't know any more about how sapienceappeared today than we did in the year zero, or in the year 654 Pre-Atomicfor that matter. "

"Wait a minute, " Jack interrupted. "Before we go any deeper, let's agreeon a definition of sapience. "

Van Riebeek laughed. "Ever try to get a definition of life from abiologist?" he asked. "Or a definition of number from a mathematician?"

"That's about it. " Ruth looked at the Fuzzies, who were looking at theircolored-ball construction as though wondering if they could add anythingmore without spoiling the design. "I'd say: a level of mentationqualitatively different from nonsapience in that it includes ability tosymbolize ideas and store and transmit them, ability to generalize andability to form abstract ideas. There; I didn't say a word abouttalk-and-build-a-fire, did I?"

"Little Fuzzy symbolizes and generalizes, " Jack said. "He symbolizes adamnthing by three horns, and he symbolizes a rifle by a long thing thatpoints and makes noises. Rifles kill animals. Harpies and damnthings areboth animals. If a rifle will kill a harpy, it'll kill a damnthing too. "

Juan Jimenez had been frowning in thought; he looked up and asked, "What'sthe lowest known sapient race?"

"Yggdrasil Khooghras, " Gerd van Riebeek said promptly. "Any of you everbeen on Yggdrasil?"

"I saw a man shot once on Mimir, for calling another man a son of aKhooghra, " Jack said. "The man who shot him had been on Yggdrasil and knewwhat he was being called. "

"I spent a couple of years among them, " Gerd said. "They do build fires;I'll give them that. They char points on sticks to make spears. And theytalk. I learned their language, all eighty-two words of it. I taught a fewof the intelligentsia how to use machetes without maiming themselves, andthere was one mental giant I could trust to carry some of my equipment, ifI kept an eye on him, but I never let him touch my rifle or my camera. "

"Can they generalize?" Ruth asked. 

"Honey, they can't do nothin' else but! Every word in their language is ahigh-order generalization. _Hroosha_, live-thing. _Noosha_, bad-thing. _Dhishta_, thing-to-eat. Want me to go on? There are only seventy-ninemore of them. "

Before anybody could stop him, the communication screen got itself into anuproar. The Fuzzies all ran over in front of it, and Jack switched it on. The caller was a man in gray semiformals; he had wavy gray hair and a facethat looked like Juan Jimenez's twenty years from now. 

"Good evening; Holloway here. "

"Oh, Mr. Holloway, good evening. " The caller shook hands with himself, turning on a dazzling smile. "I'm Leonard Kellogg, chief of the Company'sscience division. I just heard the tape you made about the--the Fuzzies?"He looked down at the floor. "Are these some of the animals?"

"These are the Fuzzies. " He hoped it sounded like the correction it wasintended to be. "Dr. Bennett Rainsford's here with me now, and so are Dr. Jimenez, Dr. Van Riebeek and Dr. Ortheris. " Out of the corner of his eyehe could see Jimenez squirming as though afflicted with ants, van Riebeekgetting his poker face battened down and Ben Rainsford suppressing a grin. "Some of us are out of screen range, and I'm sure you'll want to ask a lotof questions. Pardon us a moment, while we close in. "

He ignored Kellogg's genial protest that that wouldn't be necessary untilthe chairs were placed facing the screen. As an afterthought, he handedFuzzies around, giving Little Fuzzy to Ben, Ko-Ko to Gerd, Mitzi to Ruth, Mike to Jimenez and taking Mamma and Baby on his own lap. 

Baby immediately started to climb up onto his head, as expected. It seemedto disconcert Kellogg, also as expected. He decided to teach Baby to thumbhis nose when given some unobtrusive signal. 

"Now, about that tape I recorded last evening, " he began. 

"Yes, Mr. Holloway. " Kellogg's smile was getting more mechanical everyminute. He was having trouble keeping his eyes off Baby. "I must say, Iwas simply astounded at the high order of intelligence claimed for thesecreatures. "

"And you wanted to see how big a liar I was. I don't blame you; I hadtrouble believing it myself at first. "

Kellogg gave a musically blithe laugh, showing even more dental equipment. 

"Oh, no. Mr. Holloway; please don't misunderstand me. I never thoughtanything like that. "

"I hope not, " Ben Rainsford said, not too pleasantly. "I vouched for Mr. Holloway's statements, if you'll recall. "

"Of course, Bennett; that goes without saying. Permit me to congratulateyou upon a most remarkable scientific discovery. An entirely new order ofmammals--"

"Which may be the ninth extrasolar sapient race, " Rainsford added. 

"Good heavens, Bennett!" Kellogg jettisoned his smile and slid on a lookof shocked surprise. "You surely can't be serious?" He looked again at theFuzzies, pulled the smile back on and gave a light laugh. 

"I thought you'd heard that tape, " Rainsford said. 

"Of course, and the things reported were most remarkable. But sapiences!Just because they've been taught a few tricks, and use sticks and stonesfor weapons--" He got rid of the smile again, and quick-changed toseriousness. "Such an extreme claim must only be made after carefulstudy. "

"Well, I won't claim they're sapient, " Ruth Ortheris told him. "Not tillday after tomorrow, at the earliest. But they very easily could be. Theyhave learning and reasoning capacity equal to that of any eight-year-oldTerran Human child, and well above that of the adults of some recognizedlysapient races. And they have not been taught tricks; they have learned byobservation and reasoning. "

"Well, Dr. Kellogg, mentation levels isn't my subject, " Jimenez took itup, "but they do have all the physical characteristics shared by othersapient races--lower limbs specialized for locomotion and upper limbs formanipulation, erect posture, stereoscopic vision, color perception, erectposture, hand with opposing thumb--all the characteristics we consider asprerequisite to the development of sapience. "

"I think they're sapient, myself, " Gerd van Riebeek said, "but that's notas important as the fact that they're on the very threshold of sapience. This is the first race of this mental level anybody's ever seen. I believethat study of the Fuzzies will help us solve the problem of how sapiencedeveloped in any race. "

Kellogg had been laboring to pump up a head of enthusiasm; now he wasready to valve it off. 

"But this is amazing! This will make scientific history! Now, of course, you all realize how pricelessly valuable these Fuzzies are. They must bebrought at once to Mallorysport, where they can be studied underlaboratory conditions by qualified psychologists, and--"

"No. "

Jack lifted Baby Fuzzy off his head and handed him to Mamma, and set Mammaon the floor. That was reflex; the thinking part of his brain knew hedidn't need to clear for action when arguing with the electronic image ofa man twenty-five hundred miles away. 

"Just forget that part of it and start over, " he advised. 

Kellogg ignored him. "Gerd, you have your airboat; fix up some nicecomfortable cages--"

_"Kellogg!_"

The man in the screen stopped talking and stared in amazed indignation. Itwas the first time in years he had been addressed by his naked patronymic, and possibly the first time in his life he had been shouted at. 

"Didn't you hear me the first time Kellogg? Then stop gibbering aboutcages. These Fuzzies aren't being taken anywhere. "

"But Mr. Holloway! Don't you realize that these little beings must becarefully studied? Don't you want them given their rightful place in thehierarchy of nature?"

"If you want to study them, come out here and do it. That's so long as youdon't annoy them, or me. As far as study's concerned, they're beingstudied now. Dr. Rainsford's studying them, and so are three of yourpeople, and when it comes to that, I'm studying them myself. "

"And I'd like you to clarify that remark about qualified psychologists, "Ruth Ortheris added, in a voice approaching zero-Kelvin. "You wouldn't bechallenging my professional qualifications, would you?"

"Oh, Ruth, you know I didn't mean anything like that. Please don'tmisunderstand me, " Kellogg begged. "But this is highly specialized work--"

"Yes; how many Fuzzy specialists have you at Science Center, Leonard?"Rainsford wanted to know. "The only one I can think of is Jack Holloway, here. "

"Well, I'd thought of Dr. Mallin, the Company's head psychologist. "

"He can come too, just as long as he understands that he'll have to havemy permission for anything he wants to do with the Fuzzies, " Jack said. "When can we expect you?"

Kellogg thought some time late the next afternoon. He didn't have to askhow to get to the camp. He made a few efforts to restore the conversationto its original note of cordiality, gave that up as a bad job and blankedout. There was a brief silence in the living room. Then Jimenez saidreproachfully:

"You certainly weren't very gracious to Dr. Kellogg, Jack. Maybe you don'trealize it, but he is a very important man. "

"He isn't important to me, and I wasn't gracious to him at all. It doesn'tpay to be gracious to people like that. If you are, they always try totake advantage of it. "

"Why, I didn't know you knew Len, " van Riebeek said. 

"I never saw the individual before. The species is very common and widelydistributed. " He turned to Rainsford. "You think he and this Mallin willbe out tomorrow?"

"Of course they will. This is a little too big for underlings andnon-Company people to be allowed to monkey with. You know, we'll have towatch out or in a year we'll be hearing from Terra about the discovery ofa sapient race on Zarathustra; _Fuzzy fuzzy Kellogg_. As Juan says, Dr. Kellogg is a very important man. That's how he got important. "

VI

The recorded voice ceased; for a moment the record player hummedvoicelessly. Loud in the silence, a photocell acted with a double click, opening one segment of the sun shielding and closing another at theopposite side of the dome. Space Commodore Alex Napier glanced up from hisdesk and out at the harshly angular landscape of Xerxes and the blacknessof airless space beyond the disquietingly close horizon. Then he picked uphis pipe and knocked the heel out into the ashtray. Nobody said anything. He began packing tobacco into the bowl. 

"Well, gentlemen?" He invited comment. 

"Pancho?" Captain Conrad Greibenfeld, the Exec. , turned to LieutenantYbarra, the chief psychologist. 

"How reliable is this stuff?" Ybarra asked. 

"Well, I knew Jack Holloway thirty years ago, on Fenris, when I was justan ensign. He must be past seventy now, " he parenthesized. "If he says hesaw anything, I'll believe it. And Bennett Rainsford's absolutelyreliable, of course. "

"How about the agent?" Ybarra insisted. 

He and Stephen Aelborg, the Intelligence officer, exchanged glances. Henodded, and Aelborg said:

"One of the best. One of our own, lieutenant j. G. , Naval Reserve. Youdon't need to worry about credibility, Pancho. "

"They sound sapient to me, " Ybarra said. "You know, this is something I'vealways been half hoping and half afraid would happen. "

"You mean an excuse to intervene in that mess down there?" Greibenfeldasked. 

Ybarra looked blankly at him for a moment. "No. No, I meant a case ofborderline sapience; something our sacred talk-and-build-a-fire rule won'tcover. Just how did this come to our attention, Stephen?"

"Well, it was transmitted to us from Contact Center in Mallorysport lateFriday night. There seem to be a number of copies of this tape around; ouragent got hold of one of them and transmitted it to Contact Center, and itwas relayed on to us, with the agent's comments, " Aelborg said. "ContactCenter ordered a routine surveillance inside Company House and, to playsafe, at the Residency. At the time, there seemed no reason to give thething any beat-to-quarters-and-man-guns treatment, but we got a report onSaturday afternoon--Mallorysport time, that is--that Leonard Kellogg hadplayed off the copy of the tape that Juan Jimenez had made for file, andhad alerted Victor Grego immediately. 

"Of course, Grego saw the implications at once. He sent Kellogg and thechief Company psychologist, Ernst Mallin, out to Beta Continent withorders to brand Rainsford's and Holloway's claims as a deliberate hoax. Then the Company intends to encourage the trapping of Fuzzies for theirfur, in hopes that the whole species will be exterminated before anybodycan get out from Terra to check on Rainsford's story. "

"I hadn't heard that last detail before. "

"Well, we can prove it, " Aelborg assured him. 

It sounded like a Victor Grego idea. He lit his pipe slowly. Damnit, hedidn't want to have to intervene. No Space Navy C. O. Did. Justifyingintervention on a Colonial planet was too much bother--always a board ofinquiry, often a courtmartial. And supersession of civil authority wascompletely against Service Doctrine. Of course, there were other and moreimportant tenets of Service Doctrine. The sovereignty of the TerranFederation for one, and the inviolability of the Federation Constitution. And the rights of extraterrestrials, too. Conrad Greibenfeld, too, seemedto have been thinking about that. 

"If those Fuzzies are sapient beings, that whole setup down there isillegal. Company, Colonial administration and all, " he said. "Zarathustra's a Class-IV planet, and that's all you can make out of it. "

"We won't intervene unless we're forced to. Pancho, I think the decisionwill be largely up to you. "

Pancho Ybarra was horrified. 

"Good God, Alex! You can't mean that. Who am I? A nobody. All I have is anordinary M. D. , and a Psych. D. Why, the best psychological brains in theFederation--"

"Aren't on Zarathustra, Pancho. They're on Terra, five hundredlight-years, six months' ship voyage each way. Intervention, of course, ismy responsibility, but the sapience question is yours. I don't envy you, but I can't relieve you of it. "

 * * * * *

Gerd van Riebeek's suggestion that all three of the visitors sleep aboardthe airboat hadn't been treated seriously at all. Gerd himself wasaccommodated in the spare room of the living hut. Juan Jimenez went withBen Rainsford to his camp for the night. Ruth Ortheris had the cabin ofthe boat to herself. Rainsford was on the screen the next morning, whileJack and Gerd and Ruth and the Fuzzies were having breakfast; he andJimenez had decided to take his airjeep and work down from the head ofCold Creek in the belief that there must be more Fuzzies around in thewoods. 

Both Gerd and Ruth decided to spend the morning at the camp and getacquainted with the Fuzzies on hand. The family had had enough breakfastto leave them neutral on the subject of land-prawns, and they were givenanother of the new toys, a big colored ball. They rolled it around in thegrass for a while, decided to save it for their evening romp and took itinto the house. Then they began playing aimlessly among some junk in theshed outside the workshop. Once in a while one of them would drift away tolook for a prawn, more for sport than food. 

Ruth and Gerd and Jack were sitting at the breakfast table on the grass, talking idly and trying to think of excuses for not washing the dishes. Mamma Fuzzy and Baby were poking about in the tall grass. Suddenly Mammagave a shrill cry and started back for the shed, chasing Baby ahead of herand slapping him on the bottom with the flat of her chopper-digger tohurry him along. 

Jack started for the house at a run. Gerd grabbed his camera and jumped upon the table. It was Ruth who saw the cause of the disturbance. 

"Jack! Look, over there!" She pointed to the edge of the clearing. "Twostrange Fuzzies!"

He kept on running, but instead of the rifle he had been going for, hecollected his movie camera, two of the spare chopper-diggers and someExtee Three. When he emerged again, the two Fuzzies had come into theclearing and stood side by side, looking around. Both were females, andthey both carried wooden prawn-killers. 

"You have plenty of film?" he asked Gerd. "Here, Ruth; take this. " Hehanded her his own camera. "Keep far enough away from me to get what I'mdoing and what they're doing. I'm going to try to trade with them. "

He went forward, the steel weapons in his hip pocket and the Extee Threein his hand, talking softly and soothingly to the newcomers. When he wasas close to them as he could get without stampeding them, he stopped. 

"Our gang's coming up behind you, " Gerd told him. "Regular skirmish line;choppers at high port. Now they've stopped, about thirty feet behind you. "

He broke off a piece of Extee Three, put it in his mouth and ate it. Thenhe broke off two more pieces and held them out. The two Fuzzies weretempted, but not to the point of rashness. He threw both pieces within afew feet of them. One darted forward, threw a piece to her companion andthen snatched the other piece and ran back with it. They stood together, nibbling and making soft delighted noises. 

His own family seemed to disapprove strenuously of this lavishing ofdelicacies upon outsiders. However, the two strangers decided that itwould be safe to come closer, and soon he had them taking bits of fieldration from his hand. Then he took the two steel chopper-diggers out ofhis pocket, and managed to convey the idea that he wanted to trade. Thetwo strange Fuzzies were incredulously delighted. This was too much forhis own tribe; they came up yeeking angrily. 

The two strange females retreated a few steps, their new weapon ready. Everybody seemed to expect a fight, and nobody wanted one. From what hecould remember of Old Terran history, this was a situation which coulddevelop into serious trouble. Then Ko-Ko advanced, dragging hischopper-digger in an obviously pacific manner, and approached the twofemales, yeeking softly and touching first one and then the other. Then helaid his weapon down and put his foot on it. The two females beganstroking and caressing him. 

Immediately the crisis evaporated. The others of the family came forward, stuck their weapons in the ground and began fondling the strangers. Thenthey all sat in a circle, swaying their bodies rhythmically and makingsoft noises. Finally Ko-Ko and the two females rose, picked up theirweapons and started for the woods. 

"Jack, stop them, " Ruth called out. "They're going away. "

"If they want to go, I have no right to stop them. "

When they were almost at the edge of the woods, Ko-Ko stopped, drove thepoint of his weapon into the ground and came running back to Pappy Jack, throwing his arms around the human knees and yeeking. Jack stooped andstroked him, but didn't try to pick him up. One of the two females pulledhis chopper-digger out, and they both came back slowly. At the same time, Little Fuzzy, Mamma Fuzzy, Mike and Mitzi came running back. For a while, all the Fuzzies embraced one another, yeeking happily. Then they alltrooped across the grass and went into the house. 

"Get that all, Gerd?" he asked. 

"On film, yes. That's the only way I did, though. What happened?"

"You have just made the first film of intertribal social and matingcustoms, Zarathustran Fuzzy. This is the family's home; they don't wantany strange Fuzzies hanging around. They were going to run the girls off. Then Ko-Ko decided he liked their looks, and he decided he'd team up withthem. That made everything different; the family sat down with them totell them what a fine husband they were getting and to tell Ko-Kogood-bye. Then Ko-Ko remembered that he hadn't told me good-bye, and hecame back. The family decided that two more Fuzzies wouldn't be in excessof the carrying capacity of this habitat, seeing what a good providerPappy Jack is, so now I should imagine they're showing the girls thefamily treasures. You know, they married into a mighty well-to-do family. "

The girls were named Goldilocks and Cinderella. When lunch was ready, theywere all in the living room, with the viewscreen on; after lunch, thewhole gang went into the bedroom for a nap on Pappy Jack's bed. He spentthe afternoon developing movie film, while Gerd and Ruth wrote up thenotes they had made the day before and collaborated on an account of theadoption. By late afternoon, when they were finished, the Fuzzies came outfor a frolic and prawn hunt. 

They all heard the aircar before any of the human people did, and they allran over and climbed up on the bench beside the kitchen door. It was aconstabulary cruise car; it landed, and a couple of troopers got out, saying that they'd stopped to see the Fuzzies. They wanted to know wherethe extras had come from, and when Jack told them, they looked at oneanother. 

"Next gang that comes along, call us and keep them entertained till we canget here, " one of them said. "We want some at the post, for prawns ifnothing else. "

"What's George's attitude?" he asked. "The other night, when he was here, he seemed half scared of them. "

"Aah, he's got over that, " one of the troopers said. "He called BenRainsford; Ben said they were perfectly safe. Hey, Ben says they're notanimals; they're people. "

He started to tell them about some of the things the Fuzzies did. He wasstill talking when the Fuzzies heard another aircar and called attentionto it. This time, it was Ben Rainsford and Juan Jimenez. They piled out assoon as they were off contragravity, dragging cameras after them. 

"Jack, there are Fuzzies all over the place up there, " Rainsford began, while he was getting out. "All headed down this way; regular_Volkerwanderung_. We saw over fifty of them--four families, andindividuals and pairs. I'm sure we missed ten for every one we saw. "

"We better get up there with a car tomorrow, " one of the troopers said. "Ben, just where were you?"

"I'll show you on the map. " Then he saw Goldilocks and Cinderella. "Hey!Where'd you two girls come from? I never saw you around here before. "

 * * * * *

There was another clearing across the stream, with a log footbridge and apath to the camp. Jack guided the big airboat down onto it, and put hisairjeep alongside with the canopy up. There were two men on the forwarddeck of the boat, Kellogg and another man who would be Ernst Mallin. Athird man came out of the control cabin after the boat was offcontragravity. Jack didn't like Mallin. He had a tight, secretive face, with arrogance and bigotry showing underneath. The third man was younger. His face didn't show anything much, but his coat showed a bulge under theleft arm. After being introduced by Kellogg, Mallin introduced him as KurtBorch, his assistant. 

Mallin had to introduce Borch again at the camp, not only to Ben Rainsfordbut also to van Riebeek, to Jimenez and even to Ruth Ortheris, whichseemed a little odd. Ruth seemed to think so, too, and Mallin hastened totell her that Borch was with Personnel, giving some kind of tests. Thatappeared to puzzle her even more. None of the three seemed happy about thepresence of the constabulary troopers, either; they were all relieved whenthe cruise car lifted out. 

Kellogg became interested in the Fuzzies immediately, squatting to examinethem. He said something to Mallin, who compressed his lips and shook hishead, saying:

"We simply cannot assume sapience until we find something in theirbehavior which cannot be explained under any other hypothesis. We would bemuch safer to assume nonsapience and proceed to test that assumption. "

That seemed to establish the keynote. Kellogg straightened, and he andMallin started one of those "of course I agree, doctor, but don't youfind, on the other hand, that you must agree" sort of arguments, about thedifference between scientific evidence and scientific proof. Jimenez gotinto it to the extent of agreeing with everything Kellogg said, anddiffering politely with everything Mallin said that he thought Kelloggwould differ with. Borch said nothing; he just stood and looked at theFuzzies with ill-concealed hostility. Gerd and Ruth decided to helpgetting dinner. 

They ate outside on the picnic table, with the Fuzzies watching theminterestedly. Kellogg and Mallin carefully avoided discussing them. Itwasn't until after dusk, when the Fuzzies brought their ball inside andeverybody was in the living room, that Kellogg, adopting apresiding-officer manner, got the conversation onto the subject. For sometime, without giving anyone else an opportunity to say anything, he gushedabout what an important discovery the Fuzzies were. The Fuzzies themselvesignored him and began dismantling the stick-and-ball construction. For awhile Goldilocks and Cinderella watched interestedly, and then they beganassisting. 

"Unfortunately, " Kellogg continued, "so much of our data is in the form ofuncorroborated statements by Mr. Holloway. Now, please don't misunderstandme. I don't, myself, doubt for a moment anything Mr. Holloway said on thattape, but you must realize that professional scientists are most reluctantto accept the unsubstantiated reports of what, if you'll pardon me, theythink of as nonqualified observers. "

"Oh, rubbish, Leonard!" Rainsford broke in impatiently. "I'm aprofessional scientist, of a good many more years' standing than you, andI accept Jack Holloway's statements. A frontiersman like Jack is a verycareful and exact observer. People who aren't don't live long on frontierplanets. "

"Now, please don't misunderstand me, " Kellogg reiterated. "I don't doubtMr. Holloway's statements. I was just thinking of how they would bereceived on Terra. "

"I shouldn't worry about that, Leonard. The Institute accepts my reports, and I'm vouching for Jack's reliability. I can substantiate most of whathe told me from personal observation. "

"Yes, and there's more than just verbal statements, " Gerd van Riebeekchimed in. "A camera is not a nonqualified observer. We have quite a bitof film of the Fuzzies. "

"Oh, yes; there was some mention of movies, " Mallin said. "You don't haveany of them developed yet, do you?"

"Quite a lot. Everything except what was taken out in the woods thisafternoon. We can run them off right now. "

He pulled down the screen in front of the gunrack, got the film and loadedhis projector. The Fuzzies, who had begun on a new stick-and-ballconstruction, were irritated when the lights went out, then wildly excitedwhen Little Fuzzy, digging a toilet pit with the wood chisel, appeared. Little Fuzzy in particular was excited about that; if he didn't recognizehimself, he recognized the chisel. Then there were pictures of LittleFuzzy killing and eating land-prawns, Little Fuzzy taking the nut off thebolt and putting it on again, and pictures of the others, after they hadcome in, hunting and at play. Finally, there was the film of the adoptionof Goldilocks and Cinderella. 

"What Juan and I got this afternoon, up in the woods, isn't so good, I'mafraid, " Rainsford said when the show was over and the lights were onagain. "Mostly it's rear views disappearing into the brush. It was veryhard to get close to them in the jeep. Their hearing is remarkably acute. But I'm sure the pictures we took this afternoon will show the things theywere carrying--wooden prawn-killers like the two that were traded from thenew ones in that last film. "

Mallin and Kellogg looked at one another in what seemed oddly likeconsternation. 

"You didn't tell us there were more of them around, " Mallin said, asthough it were an accusation of duplicity. He turned to Kellogg. "Thisalters the situation. "

"Yes, indeed, Ernst, " Kellogg burbled delightedly. "This is a wonderfulopportunity. Mr. Holloway, I understand that all this country up here isyour property, by landgrant purchase. That's right, isn't it? Well, wouldyou allow us to camp on that clearing across the run, where our boat isnow? We'll get prefab huts--Red Hill's the nearest town, isn't it?--andhave a Company construction gang set them up for us, and we won't be anybother at all to you. We had only intended staying tonight on our boat, and returning to Mallorysport in the morning, but with all these Fuzziesswarming around in the woods, we can't think of leaving now. You don'thave any objection, do you?"

He had lots of objections. The whole business was rapidly developing intoan acute pain in the neck for him. But if he didn't let Kellogg campacross the run, the three of them could move seventy or eighty miles inany direction and be off his land. He knew what they'd do then. They'dlive-trap or sleep-gas Fuzzies; they'd put them in cages, and torment themwith maze and electric-shock experiments, and kill a few for dissection, or maybe not bother killing them first. On his own land, if they didanything like that, he could do something about it. 

"Not at all. I'll have to remind you again, though, that you're to treatthese little people with consideration. "

"Oh, we won't do anything to your Fuzzies, " Mallin said. 

"You won't hurt any Fuzzies. Not more than once, anyhow. "

 * * * * *

The next morning, during breakfast, Kellogg and Kurt Borch put in anappearance, Borch wearing old clothes and field boots and carrying hispistol on his belt. They had a list of things they thought they would needfor their camp. Neither of them seemed to have more than the foggiestnotion of camp requirements. Jack made some suggestions which theyaccepted. There was a lot of scientific equipment on the list, includingan X-ray machine. He promptly ran a pencil line through that. 

"We don't know what these Fuzzies' level of radiation tolerance is. We'renot going to find out by overdosing one of my Fuzzies. "

Somewhat to his surprise, neither of them gave him any argument. Gerd andRuth and Kellogg borrowed his airjeep and started north; he and Borch wentacross the run to make measurements after Rainsford and Jimenez arrivedand picked up Mallin. Borch took off soon after with the boat for RedHill. Left alone, he loafed around the camp, and developed the rest of themovie film, making three copies of everything. Toward noon, Borch broughtthe boat back, followed by a couple of scowlike farmboats. In a few hours, the Company construction men from Red Hill had the new camp set up. Amongother things, they brought two more air jeeps. 

The two jeeps returned late in the afternoon, everybody excited. Betweenthem, the parties had seen almost a hundred Fuzzies, and had found threecamps, two among rocks and one in a hollow pool-ball tree. All three hadbeen spotted by belts of filled-in toilet pits around them; two had beenabandoned and the third was still occupied. Kellogg insisted on playinghost to Jack and Rainsford for dinner at the camp across the run. Themeal, because everything had been brought ready-cooked and only neededwarming, was excellent. 

Returning to his own camp with Rainsford, Jack found the Fuzzies finishedwith their evening meal and in the living room, starting a newconstruction--he could think of no other name for it--with themolecule-model balls and sticks. Goldilocks left the others and came overto him with a couple of balls fastened together, holding them up with onehand while she pulled his trouser leg with the other. 

"Yes, I see. It's very beautiful, " he told her. 

She tugged harder and pointed at the thing the others were making. Finally, he understood. 

"She wants me to work on it, too, " he said. "Ben, you know where thecoffee is; fix us a pot. I'm going to be busy here. "

He sat down on the floor, and was putting sticks and balls together whenBen brought in the coffee. This was more fun than he'd had in a couple ofdays. He said so while Ben was distributing Extee Three to the Fuzzies. 

"Yes, I ought to let you kick me all around the camp for getting thisstarted, " Rainsford said, pouring the coffee. "I could make some excuses, but they'd all sound like 'I didn't know it was loaded. '"

"Hell, I didn't know it was loaded, either. " He rose and took his coffeecup, blowing on it to cool it. "What do you think Kellogg's up to, anyhow?That whole act he's been putting on since he came here is phony as anine-sol bill. "

"What I told you, evening before last, " Rainsford said. "He doesn't wantnon-Company people making discoveries on Zarathustra. You notice how hardhe and Mallin are straining to talk me out of sending a report back toTerra before he can investigate the Fuzzies? He wants to get his ownreport in first. Well, the hell with him! You know what I'm going to do?I'm going home, and I'm going to sit up all night getting a report intoshape. Tomorrow morning I'm going to give it to George Lunt and let himsend it to Mallorysport in the constabulary mail pouch. It'll be on a shipfor Terra before any of this gang knows it's been sent. Do you have anycopies of those movies you can spare?"

"About a mile and a half. I made copies of everything, even the stuff theothers took. "

"Good. We'll send that, too. Let Kellogg read about it in the papers ayear from now. " He thought for a moment, then said: "Gerd and Ruth andJuan are bunking at the other camp now; suppose I move in here with youtomorrow. I assume you don't want to leave the Fuzzies alone while thatgang's here. I can help you keep an eye on them. "

"But, Ben, you don't want to drop whatever else you're doing--"

"What I'm doing, now, is learning to be a Fuzzyologist, and this is theonly place I can do it. I'll see you tomorrow, after I stop at theconstabulary post. "

 * * * * *

The people across the run--Kellogg, Mallin and Borch, and van Riebeek, Jimenez and Ruth Ortheris--were still up when Rainsford went out to hisairjeep. After watching him lift out, Jack went back into the house, played with his family in the living room for a while and went to bed. Thenext morning he watched Kellogg, Ruth and Jimenez leave in one jeep and, shortly after, Mallin and van Riebeek in the other. Kellogg didn't seem tobe willing to let the three who had come to the camp first wander aroundunchaperoned. He wondered about that. 

Ben Rainsford's airjeep came over the mountains from the south in the latemorning and settled onto the grass. Jack helped him inside with hisluggage, and then they sat down under the big featherleaf trees to smoketheir pipes and watch the Fuzzies playing in the grass. Occasionally theysaw Kurt Borch pottering around outside the other camp. 

"I sent the report off, " Rainsford said, then looked at his watch. "Itought to be on the mail boat for Mallorysport by now; this time tomorrowit'll be in hyperspace for Terra. We won't say anything about it; just sitback and watch Len Kellogg and Ernst Mallin working up a sweat trying totalk us out of sending it. " He chuckled. "I made a definite claim ofsapience; by the time I got the report in shape to tape off, I couldn'tsee any other alternative. "

"Damned if I can. You hear that, kids?" he asked Mike and Mitzi, who hadcome over in hope that there might be goodies for them. "Uncle Ben saysyou're sapient. "

"Yeek?"

"They want to know if it's good to eat. What'll happen now?"

"Nothing, for about a year. Six months from now, when the ship gets in, the Institute will release it to the press, and then they'll send aninvestigation team here. So will any of the other universities orscientific institutes that may be interested. I suppose the government'llsend somebody, too. After all, subcivilized natives on colonized planetsare wards of the Terran Federation. "

He didn't know that he liked that. The less he had to do with thegovernment the better, and his Fuzzies were wards of Pappy Jack Holloway. He said as much. 

Rainsford picked up Mitzi and stroked her. "Nice fur, " he said. "Fur likethat would bring good prices. It will, if we don't get these peoplerecognized as sapient beings. "

He looked across the run at the new camp and wondered. Maybe LeonardKellogg saw that, too, and saw profits for the Company in Fuzzy fur. 

 * * * * *

The airjeeps returned in the middle of the afternoon, first Mallin's, andthen Kellogg's. Everybody went inside. An hour later, a constabulary carlanded in front of the Kellogg camp. George Lunt and Ahmed Khadra got out. Kellogg came outside, spoke with them and then took them into the mainliving hut. Half an hour later, the lieutenant and the trooper emerged, lifted their car across the run and set it down on the lawn. The Fuzziesran to meet them, possibly expecting more whistles, and followed them intothe living room. Lunt and Khadra took off their berets, but made no moveto unbuckle their gun belts. 

"We got your package off all right Ben, " Lunt said. He sat down and tookGoldilocks on his lap; immediately Cinderella jumped up, also. "Jack, whatthe hell's that gang over there up to anyhow?"

"You got that, too?"

"You can smell it on them for a mile, against the wind. In the firstplace, that Borch. I wish I could get his prints; I'll bet we have them onfile. And the whole gang's trying to hide something, and what they'retrying to hide is something they're scared of, like a body in a closet. When we were over there, Kellogg did all the talking; anybody else whotried to say anything got shut up fast. Kellogg doesn't like you, Jack andhe doesn't like Ben, and he doesn't like the Fuzzies. Most of all hedoesn't like the Fuzzies. "

"Well, I told you what I thought this morning, " Rainsford said. "Theydon't want outsiders discovering things on this planet. It wouldn't makethem look good to the home office on Terra. Remember, it was somenon-Company people who discovered the first sunstones, back in'Forty-eight. "

George Lunt looked thoughtful. On him, it was a scowl. 

"I don't think that's it, Ben. When we were talking to him, he admittedvery freely that you and Jack discovered the Fuzzies. The way he talked, he didn't seem to think they were worth discovering at all. And he asked alot of funny questions about you, Jack. The kind of questions I'd ask if Iwas checking up on somebody's mental competence. " The scowl became one ofanger now. "By God, I wish I had an excuse to question him--with averidicator!"

Kellogg didn't want the Fuzzies to be sapient beings. If they weren'tthey'd be . .. Fur-bearing animals. Jack thought of some overfed societydowager on Terra or Baldur, wearing the skins of Little Fuzzy and MammaFuzzy and Mike and Mitzi and Ko-Ko and Cinderella and Goldilocks wrappedaround her adipose carcass. It made him feel sick. 

VII

Tuesday dawned hot and windless, a scarlet sun coming up in a hard, brassysky. The Fuzzies, who were in to wake Pappy Jack with their whistles, didn't like it; they were edgy and restless. Maybe it would rain todayafter all. They had breakfast outside on the picnic table, and then Bendecided he'd go back to his camp and pick up a few things he hadn'tbrought and now decided he needed. 

"My hunting rifle's one, " he said, "and I think I'll circle down to theedge of the brush country and see if I can pick off a zebralope. We oughtto have some more fresh meat. "

So, after eating, Rainsford got into his jeep and lifted away. Across therun, Kellogg and Mallin were walking back and forth in front of the camp, talking earnestly. When Ruth Ortheris and Gerd van Riebeek came out, theystopped, broke off their conversation and spoke briefly with them. ThenGerd and Ruth crossed the footbridge and came up the path together. 

The Fuzzies had scattered, by this time, to hunt prawns. Little Fuzzy andKo-Ko and Goldilocks ran to meet them; Ruth picked Goldilocks up andcarried her, and Ko-Ko and Little Fuzzy ran on ahead. They greeted Jack, declining coffee; Ruth sat down in a chair with Goldilocks, Little Fuzzyjumped up on the table and began looking for goodies, and when Gerdstretched out on his back on the grass Ko-Ko sat down on his chest. 

"Goldilocks is my favorite Fuzzy, " Ruth was saying. "She is the sweetestthing. Of course, they're all pretty nice. I can't get over howaffectionate and trusting they are; the ones we saw out in the woods wereso timid. "

"Well, the ones out in the woods don't have any Pappy Jack to look afterthem" Gerd said. "I'd imagine they're very affectionate among themselves, but they have so many things to be afraid of. You know, there's anotherprerequisite for sapience. It develops in some small, relativelydefenseless, animal surrounded by large and dangerous enemies he can'toutrun or outfight. So, to survive, he has to learn to outthink them. Likeour own remote ancestors, or like Little Fuzzy; he had his choice ofgetting sapient or getting exterminated. "

Ruth seemed troubled. "Gerd, Dr. Mallin has found absolutely nothing aboutthem that indicates true sapience. "

"Oh, Mallin be bloodied; he doesn't know what sapience is any more than Ido. And a good deal less than you do, I'd say. I think he's trying toprove that the Fuzzies aren't sapient. "

Ruth looked startled. "What makes you say that?"

"It's been sticking out all over him ever since he came here. You're apsychologist; don't tell me you haven't seen it. Maybe if the Fuzzies wereproven sapient it would invalidate some theory he's gotten out of a book, and he'd have to do some thinking for himself. He wouldn't like that. Butyou have to admit he's been fighting the idea, intellectually andemotionally, right from the start. Why, they could sit down with pencilsand slide rules and start working differential calculus and it wouldn'tconvince him. "

"Dr. Mallin's trying to--" she began angrily. Then she broke it off. "Jack, excuse us. We didn't really come over here to have a fight. We cameto meet some Fuzzies. Didn't we, Goldilocks?"

Goldilocks was playing with the silver charm on the chain around her neck, holding it to her ear and shaking it to make it tinkle, making smalldelighted sounds. Finally she held it up and said, "Yeek?"

"Yes, sweetie-pie, you can have it. " Ruth took the chain from around herneck and put it over Goldilocks' head; she had to loop it three timesbefore it would fit. "There now; that's your very own. "

"Oh, you mustn't give her things like that. "

"Why not. It's just cheap trade-junk. You've been on Loki, Jack, you knowwhat it is. " He did; he'd traded stuff like that to the natives himself. "Some of the girls at the hospital there gave it to me for a joke. I onlywear it because I have it. Goldilocks likes it a lot better than I do. "

An airjeep rose from the other side and floated across. Juan Jimenez waspiloting it; Ernst Mallin stuck his head out the window on the right, asked her if she were ready and told Gerd that Kellogg would pick him upin a few minutes. After she had gotten into the jeep and it had liftedout, Gerd put Ko-Ko off his chest and sat up, getting cigarettes from hisshirt pocket. 

"I don't know what the devil's gotten into her, " he said, watching thejeep vanish. "Oh, yes, I do. She's gotten the Word from On High. Kellogghath spoken. Fuzzies are just silly little animals, " he said bitterly. 

"You work for Kellogg, too, don't you?"

"Yes. He doesn't dictate my professional opinion, though. You know, Ithought, in the evil hour when I took this job--" He rose to his feet, hitching his belt to balance the weight of the pistol on the right againstthe camera-binoculars on the left, and changed the subject abruptly. "Jack, has Ben Rainsford sent a report on the Fuzzies to the Instituteyet?" he asked. 

"Why?"

"If he hasn't, tell him to hurry up and get one in. "

There wasn't time to go into that further. Kellogg's jeep was rising fromthe camp across the run and approaching. 

He decided to let the breakfast dishes go till after lunch. Kurt Borch hadstayed behind at the Kellogg camp, so he kept an eye on the Fuzzies andbrought them back when they started to stray toward the footbridge. BenRainsford hadn't returned by lunchtime, but zebralope hunting took alittle time, even from the air. While he was eating, outside, one of therented airjeeps returned from the northeast in a hurry, disgorging ErnstMallin, Juan Jimenez and Ruth Ortheris. Kurt Borch came hurrying out; theytalked for a few minutes, and then they all went inside. A little later, the second jeep came in, even faster, and landed; Kellogg and van Riebeekhastened into the living hut. There wasn't anything more to see. Hecarried the dishes into the kitchen and washed them, and the Fuzzies wentinto the bedroom for their nap. 

He was sitting at the table in the living room when Gerd van Riebeekknocked on the open door. 

"Jack, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. 

"Sure. Come in. "

Van Riebeek entered, unbuckling his gun belt. He shifted a chair so thathe could see the door from it, and laid the belt on the floor at his feetwhen he sat down. Then he began to curse Leonard Kellogg in four or fivelanguages. 

"Well, I agree, in principle; why in particular, though?"

"You know what that son of a Khooghra's doing?" Gerd asked. "He andthat--" He used a couple of Sheshan words, viler than anything in LinguaTerra. "--that quack headshrinker, Mallin, are preparing a report, accusing you and Ben Rainsford of perpetrating a deliberate scientifichoax. You taught the Fuzzies some tricks; you and Rainsford, between you, made those artifacts yourselves and the two of you are conspiring to foistthe Fuzzies off as sapient beings. Jack, if it weren't so goddamn stinkingcontemptible, it would be the biggest joke of the century!"

"I take it they wanted you to sign this report, too?"

"Yes, and I told Kellogg he could--" What Kellogg could do, it seemed, wasboth appalling and physiologically impossible. He cursed again, and thenlit a cigarette and got hold of himself. "Here's what happened. Kelloggand I went up that stream, about twenty miles down Cold Creek, the oneyou've been working on, and up onto the high flat to a spring and a streamthat flows down in the opposite direction. Know where I mean? Well, wefound where some Fuzzies had been camping, among a lot of fallen timber. And we found a little grave, where the Fuzzies had buried one of theirpeople. "

He should have expected something like that, and yet it startled him. "Youmean, they bury their dead? What was the grave like?"

"A little stone cairn, about a foot and a half by three, a foot high. Kellogg said it was just a big toilet pit, but I was sure of what it was. I opened it. Stones under the cairn, and then filled-in earth, and then adead Fuzzy wrapped in grass. A female; she'd been mangled by something, maybe a bush-goblin. And get this Jack; they'd buried her prawn-stick withher. "

"They bury their dead! What was Kellogg doing, while you were opening thegrave?"

"Dithering around having ants. I'd been taking snaps of the grave, and Iwas burbling away like an ass about how important this was and how it waspositive proof of sapience, and he was insisting that we get back to campat once. He called the other jeep and told Mallin to get to campimmediately, and Mallin and Ruth and Juan were there when we got in. Assoon as Kellogg told them what we'd found, Mallin turned fish-belly whiteand wanted to know how we were going to suppress it. I asked him if he wasnuts, and then Kellogg came out with it. They don't dare let the Fuzziesbe proven sapient. "

"Because the Company wants to sell Fuzzy furs?"

Van Riebeek looked at him in surprise. "I never thought of that. I doubtif they did, either. No. Because if the Fuzzies are sapient beings, theCompany's charter is automatically void. "

This time Jack cursed, not Kellogg but himself. 

"I am a senile old dotard! Good Lord, I know colonial law; I've beenskating on the edge of it on more planets than you're years old. And Inever thought of that; why, of course it would. Where are you now, withthe Company, by the way?"

"Out, but I couldn't care less. I have enough in the bank for the tripback to Terra, not counting what I can raise on my boat and some otherthings. Xeno-naturalists don't need to worry about finding jobs. There'sBen's outfit, for instance. And, brother, when I get back to Terra, whatI'll spill about this deal!"

"If you get back. If you don't have an accident before you get on theship. " He thought for a moment. "Know anything about geology?"

"Why, some; I have to work with fossils. I'm as much a paleontologist as azoologist. Why?"

"How'd you like to stay here with me and hunt fossil jellyfish for awhile? We won't make twice as much, together, as I'm making now, but youcan look one way while I'm looking the other, and we may both stay alivelonger that way. "

"You mean that, Jack?"

"I said it, didn't I?"

Van Riebeek rose and held out his hand; Jack came around the table andshook it. Then he reached back and picked up his belt, putting it on. 

"Better put yours on, too, partner. Borch is probably the only one we'llneed a gun for, but--"

Van Riebeek buckled on his belt, then drew his pistol and worked the slideto load the chamber. "What are we going to do?" he asked. 

"Well, we're going to try to handle it legally. Fact is, I'm even going tocall the cops. "

He punched out a combination on the communication screen. It lighted andopened a window into the constabulary post. The sergeant who looked out ofit recognized him and grinned. 

"Hi, Jack. How's the family?" he asked. "I'm coming up, one of theseevenings, to see them. "

"You can see some now. " Ko-Ko and Goldilocks and Cinderella were comingout of the hall from the bedroom; he gathered them up and put them on thetable. The sergeant was fascinated. Then he must have noticed that bothJack and Gerd were wearing their guns in the house. His eyes narrowedslightly. 

"You got problems, Jack?" he asked. 

"Little ones; they may grow, though. I have some guests here who haveoutstayed their welcome. For the record, better make it that I havesquatters I want evicted. If there were a couple of blue uniforms around, maybe it might save me the price of a few cartridges. "

"I read you. George was mentioning that you might regret inviting thatgang to camp on you. " He picked up a handphone. "Calderon to Car Three, "he said. "Do you read me, Three? Well, Jack Holloway's got a littlesquatter trouble. Yeah; that's it. He's ordering them off his grant, andhe thinks they might try to give him an argument. Yeah, sure, Peace Lovin'Jack Holloway, that's him. Well, go chase his squatters for him, and ifthey give you anything about being Company big wheels, we don't care whatkind of wheels they are, just so's they start rolling. " He replaced thephone. "Look for them in about an hour, Jack. "

"Why, thanks, Phil. Drop in some evening when you can hang up your gun andstay awhile. "

He blanked the screen and began punching again. This time he got a girl, and then the Company construction boss at Red Hill. 

"Oh, hello, Jack; is Dr. Kellogg comfortable?"

"Not very. He's moving out this afternoon. I wish you'd have your gangcome up with those scows and get that stuff out of my back yard. "

"Well, he told us he was staying for a couple of weeks. "

"He got his mind changed for him. He's to be off my land by sunset. "

The Company man looked troubled. "Jack, you haven't been having troublewith Dr. Kellogg, have you?" he asked. "He's a big man with the Company. "

"That's what he tells me. You'll still have to come and get that stuff, though. "

He blanked the screen. "You know, " he said, "I think it would be no morethan fair to let Kellogg in on this. What's his screen combination?"

Gerd supplied it, and he punched it out. One of those tricky specialCompany combinations. Kurt Borch appeared in the screen immediately. 

"I want to talk to Kellogg. "

"Doctor Kellogg is very busy, at present. "

"He's going to be a damned sight busier; this is moving day. The wholegang of you have till eighteen hundred to get off my grant. "

Borch was shoved aside, and Kellogg appeared. "What's this nonsense?" hedemanded angrily. 

"You're ordered to move. You want to know why? I can let Gerd van Riebeektalk to you; I think there are a few things he's forgotten to call you. "

"You can't order us out like this. Why, you gave us permission--"

"Permission cancelled. I've called Mike Hennen in Red Hill; he's sendinghis scows back for the stuff he brought here. Lieutenant Lunt will have acouple of troopers here, too. I'll expect you to have your personal thingsaboard your airboat when they arrive. "

He blanked the screen while Kellogg was trying to tell him that it was alla misunderstanding. 

"I think that's everything. It's quite a while till sundown, " he added, "but I move for suspension of rules while we pour a small libation tosprinkle our new partnership. Then we can go outside and observe theenemy. "

There was no observable enemy action when they went out and sat down onthe bench by the kitchen door. Kellogg would be screening Mike Hennen andthe constabulary post for verification, and there would be a lot ofgathering up and packing to do. Finally, Kurt Borch emerged with acontragravity lifter piled with boxes and luggage, and Jimenez walkingbeside to steady the load. Jimenez climbed up onto the airboat and Borchfloated the load up to him and then went back into the huts. This wasrepeated several times. In the meantime, Kellogg and Mallin seemed to behaving some sort of exchange of recriminations in front. Ruth Ortheriscame out, carrying a briefcase, and sat down on the edge of a table underthe awning. 

Neither of them had been watching the Fuzzies, until they saw one of themstart down the path toward the footbridge, a glint of silver at the throatidentifying Goldilocks. 

"Look at that fool kid; you stay put, Gerd, and I'll bring her back. "

He started down the path; by the time he had reached the bridge, Goldilocks was across and had vanished behind one of the airjeeps parkedin front of the Kellogg camp. When he was across and within twenty feet ofthe vehicle, he heard a sound across and within twenty feet of thevehicle, he heard a sound he had never heard before--a shrill, thinshriek, like a file on saw teeth. At the same time, Ruth's voice screamed. 

"Don't! Leonard, stop that!"

As he ran around the jeep, the shrieking broke off suddenly. Goldilockswas on the ground, her fur reddened. Kellogg stood over her, one footraised. He was wearing white shoes, and they were both spotted with blood. He stamped the foot down on the little bleeding body, and then Jack waswithin reach of him, and something crunched under the fist he drove intoKellogg's face. Kellogg staggered and tried to raise his hands; he made astrangled noise, and for an instant the idiotic thought crossed Jack'smind that he was trying to say, "Now, please don't misunderstand me. " Hecaught Kellogg's shirt front in his left hand, and punched him again inthe face, and again, and again. He didn't know how many times he punchedKellogg before he heard Ruth Ortheris' voice:

"Jack! Watch out! Behind you!"

He let go of Kellogg's shirt and jumped aside, turning and reaching forhis gun. Kurt Borch, twenty feet away, had a pistol drawn and pointed athim. 

His first shot went off as soon as the pistol was clear of the holster. Hefired the second while it was still recoiling; there was a spot of red onBorch's shirt that gave him an aiming point for the third. Borch droppedthe pistol he hadn't been able to fire, and started folding at the kneesand then at the waist. He went down in a heap on his face. 

Behind him, Gerd van Riebeek's voice was saying, "Hold it, all of you; getyour hands up. You, too, Kellogg. "

Kellogg, who had fallen, pushed himself erect. Blood was gushing from hisnose, and he tried to stanch it on the sleeve of his jacket. As hestumbled toward his companions, he blundered into Ruth Ortheris, whopushed him angrily away from her. Then she went to the little crushedbody, dropping to her knees beside it and touching it. The silver charmbell on the neck chain jingled faintly. Ruth began to cry. 

Juan Jimenez had climbed down from the airboat; he was looking at the bodyof Kurt Borch in horror. 

"You killed him!" he accused. A moment later, he changed that to"murdered. " Then he started to run toward the living hut. 

Gerd van Riebeek fired a bullet into the ground ahead of him, bringing himup short. 

"You'll stop the next one, Juan, " he said. "Go help Dr. Kellogg; he gothimself hurt. "

"Call the constabulary, " Mallin was saying. "Ruth, you go; they won'tshoot at you. "

"Don't bother. I called them. Remember?"

Jimenez had gotten a wad of handkerchief tissue out of his pocket and wastrying to stop his superior's nosebleed. Through it, Kellogg was trying totell Mallin that he hadn't been able to help it. 

"The little beast attacked me; it cut me with that spear it was carrying. "

Ruth Ortheris looked up. The other Fuzzies were with her by the body ofGoldilocks; they must have come as soon as they had heard the screaming. 

"She came up to him and pulled at his trouser leg, the way they all dowhen they want to attract your attention, " she said. "She wanted him tolook at her new jingle. " Her voice broke, and it was a moment before shecould recover it. "And he kicked her, and then stamped her to death. "

"Ruth, keep your mouth shut!" Mallin ordered. "The thing attacked Leonard;it might have given him a serious wound. "

"It did!" Still holding the wad of tissue to his nose with one hand, Kellogg pulled up his trouser leg with the other and showed a scar on hisshin. It looked like a briar scratch. "You saw it yourself. "

"Yes, I saw it. I saw you kick her and jump on her. And all she wanted wasto show you her new jingle. "

Jack was beginning to regret that he hadn't shot Kellogg as soon as he sawwhat was going on. The other Fuzzies had been trying to get Goldilocksonto her feet. When they realized that it was no use, they let the bodydown again and crouched in a circle around it, making soft, lamentingsounds. 

"Well, when the constabulary get here, you keep quiet, " Mallin was saying. "Let me do the talking. "

"Intimidating witnesses, Mallin?" Gerd inquired. "Don't you knoweverybody'll have to testify at the constabulary post under veridication?And you're drawing pay for being a psychologist, too. " Then he saw some ofthe Fuzzies raise their heads and look toward the southeastern horizon. "Here come the cops, now. "

However, it was Ben Rainsford's airjeep, with a zebralope carcass lashedalong one side. It circled the Kellogg camp and then let down quickly;Rainsford jumped out as soon as it was grounded, his pistol drawn. 

"What happened, Jack?" he asked, then glanced around, from Goldilocks toKellogg to Borch to the pistol beside Borch's body. "I get it. Last timeanybody pulled a gun on you, they called it suicide. "

"That's what this was, more or less. You have a movie camera in your jeep?Well, get some shots of Borch, and some of Goldilocks. Then stand by, andif the Fuzzies start doing anything different, get it all. I don't thinkyou'll be disappointed. "

Rainsford looked puzzled, but he holstered his pistol and went back to hisjeep, returning with a camera. Mallin began insisting that, as a licensedM. D. , he had a right to treat Kellogg's injuries. Gerd van Riebeekfollowed him into the living hut for a first-aid kit. They were justemerging, van Riebeek's automatic in the small of Mallin's back, when aconstabulary car grounded beside Rainsford's airjeep. It wasn't Car Three. George Lunt jumped out, unsnapping the flap of his holster, while AhmedKhadra was talking into the radio. 

"What's happened, Jack? Why didn't you wait till we got here?"

"This maniac assaulted me and murdered that man over there!" Kellogg beganvociferating. 

"Is your name Jack too?" Lunt demanded. 

"My name's Leonard Kellogg, and I'm a chief of division with theCompany--"

"Then keep quiet till I ask you something. Ahmed, call the post; getKnabber and Yorimitsu, with investigative equipment, and find out what'stying up Car Three. "

Mallin had opened the first-aid kit by now; Gerd, on seeing theconstabulary, had holstered his pistol. Kellogg, still holding the soddentissues to his nose, was wanting to know what there was to investigate. 

"There's the murderer; you have him red-handed. Why don't you arrest him?"

"Jack, let's get over where we can watch these people without having tolisten to them, " Lunt said. He glanced toward the body of Goldilocks. "That happen first?"

"Watch out, Lieutenant! He still has his pistol!" Mallin shoutedwarningly. 

They went over and sat down on the contragravity-field generator housingone of the rented airjeeps. Jack started with Gerd van Riebeek's visitimmediately after noon. 

"Yes, I thought of that angle myself, " Lunt said disgustedly. "I didn'tthink of it till this morning, though, and I didn't think things wouldblow up as fast as this. Hell, I just didn't think! Well, go on. "

He interrupted a little later to ask: "Kellogg was stamping on the Fuzzywhen you hit him. You were trying to stop him?"

"That's right. You can veridicate me on that if you want to. "

"I will; I'll veridicate this whole damn gang. And this guy Borch had hisheater out when you turned around? Nothing to it, Jack. We'll have to havesome kind of a hearing, but it's just plain self-defense. Think any ofthis gang will tell the truth here, without taking them in and puttingthem under veridication?"

"Ruth Ortheris will, I think. "

"Send her over here, will you. "

She was still with the Fuzzies, and Ben Rainsford was standing beside her, his camera ready. The Fuzzies were still swaying and yeeking plaintively. She nodded and rose without speaking, going over to where Lunt waited. 

"Just what did happen, Jack?" Rainsford wanted to know. "And whose side ishe on?" He nodded toward van Riebeek, standing guard over Kellogg andMallin, his thumbs in his pistol belt. 

"Ours. He's quit the Company. "

Just as he was finishing, Car Three put in an appearance; he had to tellthe same story over again. The area in front of the Kellogg camp wasgetting congested; he hoped Mike Hennen's labor gang would stay away for awhile. Lunt talked to van Riebeek when he had finished with Ruth, and thenwith Jimenez and Mallin and Kellogg. Then he and one of the men from CarThree came over to where Jack and Rainsford were standing. Gerd vanRiebeek joined them just as Lunt was saying:

"Jack, Kellogg's made a murder complaint against you. I told him it wasself-defense, but he wouldn't listen. So, according to the book, I have toarrest you. "

"All right. " He unbuckled his gun and handed it over. "Now, George, Iherewith make complaint and accusation against Leonard Kellogg, charginghim with the unlawful and unjustified killing of a sapient being, to wit, an aboriginal native of the planet of Zarathustra commonly known asGoldilocks. "

Lunt looked at the small battered body and the six mourners around it. 

"But, Jack, they aren't legally sapient beings. "

"There is no such thing. A sapient being is a being on the mental level ofsapience, not a being that has been declared sapient. "

"Fuzzies are sapient beings, " Rainsford said. "That's the opinion of aqualified xeno-naturalist. "

"Two of them, " Gerd van Riebeek said. "That is the body of a sapientbeing. There's the man who killed her. Go ahead, Lieutenant, make yourpinch. "

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

The Fuzzies were rising, sliding their chopper-diggers under the body ofGoldilocks and lifting it on the steel shafts. Ben Rainsford was aiminghis camera as Cinderella picked up her sister's weapon and followed, carrying it; the others carried the body toward the far corner of theclearing, away from the camp. Rainsford kept just behind them, pausing tophotograph and then hurrying to keep up with them. 

They set the body down. Mike and Mitzi and Cinderella began digging; theothers scattered to hunt for stones. Coming up behind them, George Lunttook off his beret and stood holding it in both hands; he bowed his headas the grass-wrapped body was placed in the little grave and covered. 

Then, when the cairn was finished, he replaced it, drew his pistol andchecked the chamber. 

"That does it, Jack, " he said. "I am now going to arrest Leonard Kelloggfor the murder of a sapient being. "

VIII

Jack Holloway had been out on bail before, but never for quite so much. Itwas almost worth it, though, to see Leslie Coombes's eyes widen andMohammed Ali O'Brien's jaw drop when he dumped the bag of sunstones, blazing with the heat of the day and of his body, on George Lunt'smagisterial bench and invited George to pick out twenty-five thousandsols' worth. Especially after the production Coombes had made of postingKellogg's bail with one of those precertified Company checks. 

He looked at the whisky bottle in his hand, and then reached into thecupboard for another one. One for Gus Brannhard, and one for the rest ofthem. There was a widespread belief that that was why Gustavus AdolphusBrannhard was practicing sporadic law out here in the boon docks of aboon-dock planet, defending gun fighters and veldbeest rustlers. Itwasn't. Nobody on Zarathustra knew the reason, but it wasn't whisky. Whisky was only the weapon with which Gus Brannhard fought off the memoryof the reason. 

He was in the biggest chair in the living room, which was none too amplefor him; a mountain of a man with tousled gray-brown hair, his broad facemasked in a tangle of gray-brown beard. He wore a faded and grimy bushjacket with clips of rifle cartridges on the breast, no shirt and a tornundershirt over a shag of gray-brown chest hair. Between the bottoms ofhis shorts and the tops of his ragged hose and muddy boots, his legs werecovered with hair. Baby Fuzzy was sitting on his head, and Mamma Fuzzy wason his lap. Mike and Mitzi sat one on either knee. The Fuzzies had takeninstantly to Gus. Bet they thought he was a Big Fuzzy. 

"Aaaah!" he rumbled, as the bottle and glass were placed beside him. "Beenstaying alive for hours hoping for this. "

"Well, don't let any of the kids get at it. Little Fuzzy trying to smokepipes is bad enough; I don't want any dipsos in the family, too. "

Gus filled the glass. To be on the safe side, he promptly emptied it intohimself. 

"You got a nice family, Jack. Make a wonderful impression in court--aslong as Baby doesn't try to sit on the judge's head. Any jury that seesthem and hears that Ortheris girl's story will acquit you from the box, with a vote of censure for not shooting Kellogg, too. "

"I'm not worried about that. What I want is Kellogg convicted. "

"You better worry, Jack, " Rainsford said. "You saw the combination againstus at the hearing. "

Leslie Coombes, the Company's top attorney, had come out from Mallorysportin a yacht rated at Mach 6, and he must have crowded it to the limit allthe way. With him, almost on a leash, had come Mohammed Ali O'Brien, theColonial Attorney General, who doubled as Chief Prosecutor. They had bothtried to get the whole thing dismissed--self-defense for Holloway, andkilling an unprotected wild animal for Kellogg. When that had failed, theyhad teamed in flagrant collusion to fight the inclusion of any evidenceabout the Fuzzies. After all it was only a complaint court; LieutenantLunt, as a police magistrate, had only the most limited powers. 

"You saw how far they got, didn't you?"

"I hope we don't wish they'd succeeded, " Rainsford said gloomily. 

"What do you mean, Ben?" Brannhard asked. "What do you think they'll do?"

"I don't know. That's what worries me. We're threatening the ZarathustraCompany, and the Company's too big to be threatened safely, " Rainsfordreplied. "They'll try to frame something on Jack. "

"With veridication? That's ridiculous, Ben. "

"Don't you think we can prove sapience?" Gerd van Riebeek demanded. 

"Who's going to define sapience? And how?" Rainsford asked. "Why, between them, Coombes and O'Brien can even agree to accept thetalk-and-build-a-fire rule. "

"Huh-uh!" Brannhard was positive. "Court ruling on that, about forty yearsago, on Vishnu. Infanticide case, woman charged with murder in the deathof her infant child. Her lawyer moved for dismissal on the grounds thatmurder is defined as the killing of a sapient being, a sapient being isdefined as one that can talk and build a fire, and a newborn infant can doneither. Motion denied; the court ruled that while ability to speak andproduce fire is positive proof of sapience, inability to do either or bothdoes not constitute legal proof of nonsapience. If O'Brien doesn't knowthat, and I doubt if he does, Coombes will. " Brannhard poured anotherdrink and gulped it before the sapient beings around him could get at it. "You know what? I will make a small wager, and I will even give odds, thatthe first thing Ham O'Brien does when he gets back to Mallorysport will beto enter _nolle prosequi_ on both charges. What I'd like would be for himto _nol. Pros. _ Kellogg and let the charge against Jack go to court. Hewould be dumb enough to do that himself, but Leslie Coombes wouldn't lethim. "

"But if he throws out the Kellogg case, that's it, " Gerd van Riebeek said. "When Jack comes to trial, nobody'll say a mumblin' word about sapience. "

"I will, and I will not mumble it. You all know colonial law on homicide. In the case of any person killed while in commission of a felony, noprosecution may be brought in any degree, against anybody. I'm going tocontend that Leonard Kellogg was murdering a sapient being, that JackHolloway acted lawfully in attempting to stop it and that when Kurt Borchattempted to come to Kellogg's assistance he, himself, was guilty offelony, and consequently any prosecution against Jack Holloway is illegal. And to make that contention stick, I shall have to say a great many words, and produce a great deal of testimony, about the sapience of Fuzzies. "

"It'll have to be expert testimony, " Rainsford said. "The testimony ofpsychologists. I suppose you know that the only psychologists on thisplanet are employed by the chartered Zarathustra Company. " He drank whatwas left of his highball, looked at the bits of ice in the bottom of hisglass and then rose to mix another one. "I'd have done the same as youdid, Jack, but I still wish this hadn't happened. "

"_Huh!_" Mamma Fuzzy looked up, startled by the exclamation. "What do youthink Victor Grego's wishing, right now?"

 * * * * *

Victor Grego replaced the hand-phone. "Leslie, on the yacht, " he said. "They're coming in now. They'll stop at the hospital to drop Kellogg, andthen they're coming here. "

Nick Emmert nibbled a canape. He had reddish hair, pale eyes and a wide, bovine face. 

"Holloway must have done him up pretty badly, " he said. 

"I wish Holloway'd killed him!" He blurted it angrily, and saw theResident General's shocked expression. 

"You don't really mean that, Victor?"

"The devil I don't!" He gestured at the recorder-player, which had justfinished the tape of the hearing, transmitted from the yacht atsixty-speed. "That's only a teaser to what'll come out at the trial. Youknow what the Company's epitaph will be? _Kicked to death, along with aFuzzy, by Leonard Kellogg. _"

Everything would have worked out perfectly if Kellogg had only kept hishead and avoided collision with Holloway. Why, even the killing of theFuzzy and the shooting of Borch, inexcusable as that had been, wouldn'thave been so bad if it hadn't been for that asinine murder complaint. Thatwas what had provoked Holloway's counter-complaint, which was what haddone the damage. 

And, now that he thought of it, it had been one of Kellogg's people, vanRiebeek, who had touched off the explosion in the first place. He didn'tknow van Riebeek himself, but Kellogg should have, and he had handled himthe wrong way. He should have known what van Riebeek would go along withand what he wouldn't. 

"But, Victor, they won't convict Leonard of murder, " Emmert was saying. "Not for killing one of those little things. "

"'Murder shall consist of the deliberate and unjustified killing of anysapient being, of any race, '" he quoted. "That's the law. If they canprove in court that the Fuzzies are sapient beings. .. . "

Then, some morning, a couple of deputy marshals would take Leonard Kelloggout in the jail yard and put a bullet through the back of his head, which, in itself, would be no loss. The trouble was, they would also be shootingan irreparable hole in the Zarathustra Company's charter. Maybe Kelloggcould be kept out of court, at that. There wasn't a ship blasted off fromDarius without a couple of drunken spacemen being hustled aboard at thelast moment; with the job Holloway must have done, Kellogg should lookjust right as a drunken spaceman. The twenty-five thousand sols' bondcould be written off; that was pennies to the Company. No, that wouldstill leave them stuck with the Holloway trial. 

"You want me out of here when the others come, Victor?" Emmert asked, popping another canape into his mouth. 

"No, no; sit still. This will be the last chance we'll have to geteverybody together; after this, we'll have to avoid anything that'll looklike collusion. "

"Well, anything I can do to help; you know that, Victor, " Emmert said. 

Yes, he knew that. If worst came to utter worst and the Company charterwere invalidated, he could still hang on here, doing what he could tosalvage something out of the wreckage--if not for the Company, then forVictor Grego. But if Zarathustra were reclassified, Nick would befinished. His title, his social position, his sinecure, his grafts andperquisites, his alias-shrouded Company expense account--all out theairlock. Nick would be counted upon to do anything he could--however muchthat would be. 

He looked across the room at the levitated globe, revolving imperceptiblyin the orange spotlight. It was full dark on Beta Continent now, whereLeonard Kellogg had killed a Fuzzy named Goldilocks and Jack Holloway hadkilled a gunman named Kurt Borch. That angered him, too; hell of a gunman!Clear shot at the broad of a man's back, and still got himself killed. Borch hadn't been any better choice than Kellogg himself. What was thematter with him; couldn't he pick men for jobs any more? And Ham O'Brien!No, he didn't have to blame himself for O'Brien. O'Brien was one of NickEmmert's boys. And he hadn't picked Nick, either. 

The squawk-box on the desk made a premonitory noise, and a feminine voiceadvised him that Mr. Coombes and his party had arrived. 

"All right; show them in. "

Coombes entered first, tall suavely elegant, with a calm, untroubled face. Leslie Coombes would wear the same serene expression in the midst of abombardment or an earthquake. He had chosen Coombes for chief attorney, and thinking of that made him feel better. Mohammed Ali O'Brien wasneither tall, elegant nor calm. His skin was almost black--he'd been bornon Agni, under a hot B3 sun. His bald head glistened, and a big nosepeeped over the ambuscade of a bushy white mustache. What was it they saidabout him? Only man on Zarathustra who could strut sitting down. Andbehind them, the remnant of the expedition to Beta Continent--ErnstMallin, Juan Jimenez and Ruth Ortheris. Mallin was saying that it was apity Dr. Kellogg wasn't with them. 

"I question that. Well, please be seated. We have a great deal to discuss, I'm afraid. "

 * * * * *

Mr. Chief Justice Frederic Pendarvis moved the ashtray a few inches to theright and the slender vase with the spray of starflowers a few inches tothe left. He set the framed photograph of the gentle-faced, white-hairedwoman directly in front of him. Then he took a thin cigar from the silverbox, carefully punctured the end and lit it. Then, unable to think offurther delaying tactics, he drew the two bulky loose-leaf books towardhim and opened the red one, the criminal-case docket. 

Something would have to be done about this; he always told himself so atthis hour. Shoveling all this stuff onto Central Courts had been all rightwhen Mallorysport had had a population of less than five thousand andnothing else on the planet had had more than five hundred, but that timewas ten years past. The Chief Justice of a planetary colony shouldn't haveto wade through all this to see who had been accused of blotting the brandon a veldbeest calf or who'd taken a shot at whom in a barroom. Well, atleast he'd managed to get a few misdemeanor and small-claims courtsestablished; that was something. 

The first case, of course, was a homicide. It usually was. From Beta, Constabulary Fifteen, Lieutenant George Lunt. Jack Holloway--so old Jackhad cut another notch on his gun--Cold Creek Valley, Federation citizen, race Terran human; willful killing of a sapient being, to wit Kurt Borch, Mallorysport, Federation citizen, race Terran human. Complainant, LeonardKellogg, the same. Attorney of record for the defendant, Gustavus AdolphusBrannhard. The last time Jack Holloway had killed anybody, it had been acouple of thugs who'd tried to steal his sunstones; it hadn't even gotteninto complaint court. This time he might be in trouble. Kellogg was aCompany executive. He decided he'd better try the case himself. TheCompany might try to exert pressure. 

The next charge was also homicide, from Constabulary, Beta Fifteen. Heread it and blinked. Leonard Kellogg, willful killing of a sapient being, to wit, Jane Doe alias Goldilocks, aborigine, race Zarathustran Fuzzy, complainant, Jack Holloway, defendant's attorney of record, LeslieCoombes. In spite of the outrageous frivolity of the charge, he began tolaugh. It was obviously an attempt to ridicule Kellogg's own complaint outof court. Every judicial jurisdiction ought to have at least one GusBrannhard to liven things up a little. Race Zarathustran Fuzzy!

Then he stopped laughing suddenly and became deadly serious, like anengineer who finds a cataclysmite cartridge lying around primed andconnected to a discharger. He reached out to the screen panel and beganpunching a combination. A spectacled young man appeared and greeted himdeferentially. 

"Good morning, Mr. Wilkins, " he replied. "A couple of homicides at thehead of this morning's docket--Holloway and Kellogg, both from BetaFifteen. What is known about them?"

The young man began to laugh. "Oh, your Honor, they're both a lot ofnonsense. Dr. Kellogg killed some pet belonging to old Jack Holloway, thesunstone digger, and in the ensuing unpleasantness--Holloway can be veryunpleasant, if he feels he has to--this man Borch, who seems to have beenKellogg's bodyguard, made the suicidal error of trying to draw a gun onHolloway. I'm surprised at Lieutenant Lunt for letting either of thosecharges get past hearing court. Mr. O'Brien has entered _nolle prosequi_on both of them, so the whole thing can be disregarded. "

Mohammed O'Brien knew a charge of cataclysmite when he saw one, too. Hisimpulse had been to pull the detonator. Well, maybe this charge ought tobe shot, just to see what it would bring down. 

"I haven't approved the _nolle prosequi_ yet, Mr. Wilkins, " he mentionedgently. "Would you please transmit to me the hearing tapes on these cases, at sixty-speed? I'll take them on the recorder of this screen. Thank you. "

He reached out and made the necessary adjustments. Wilkins, the Clerk ofthe Courts, left the screen, and returned. There was a wavering scream fora minute and a half. Going to take more time than he had expected. Well. .. . 

 * * * * *

There wasn't enough ice in the glass, and Leonard Kellogg put more in. Then there was too much, and he added more brandy. He shouldn't havestarted drinking this early, be drunk by dinnertime if he kept it up, butwhat else was there to do? He couldn't go out, not with his face likethis. In any case, he wasn't sure he wanted to. 

They were all down on him. Ernst Mallin, and Ruth Ortheris, and even JuanJimenez. At the constabulary post, Coombes and O'Brien had treated himlike an idiot child who has to be hushed in front of company and comingback to Mallorysport they had ignored him completely. He drank quickly, and then there was too much ice in the glass again. Victor Grego had toldhim he'd better take a vacation till the trial was over, and put Mallin incharge of the division. Said he oughtn't to be in charge while thedivision was working on defense evidence. Well, maybe; it looked like thefirst step toward shoving him completely out of the Company. 

He dropped into a chair and lit a cigarette. It tasted badly, and after afew puffs he crushed it out. Well, what else could he have done? Afterthey'd found that little grave, he had to make Gerd understand what itwould mean to the Company. Juan and Ruth had been all right, but Gerd--Thethings Gerd had called him; the things he'd said about the Company. Andthen that call from Holloway, and the humiliation of being ordered outlike a tramp. 

And then that disgusting little beast had come pulling at his clothes, andhe had pushed it away--well, kicked it maybe--and it had struck at himwith the little spear it was carrying. Nobody but a lunatic would give athing like that to an animal anyhow. And he had kicked it again, and ithad screamed. .. . 

The communication screen in the next room was buzzing. Maybe that wasVictor. He gulped the brandy left in the glass and hurried to it. 

It was Leslie Coombes, his face remotely expressionless. 

"Oh, hello, Leslie. "

"Good afternoon, Dr. Kellogg. " The formality of address was studiouslyrebuking. "The Chief Prosecutor just called me; Judge Pendarvis has deniedthe _nolle prosequi_ he entered in your case and in Mr. Holloway's, andordered both cases to trial. "

"You mean they're actually taking this seriously?"

"It is serious. If you're convicted, the Company's charter will be almostautomatically voided. And, although this is important only to youpersonally, you might, very probably, be sentenced to be shot. " Heshrugged that off, and continued: "Now, I'll want to talk to you aboutyour defense, for which I am responsible. Say ten-thirty tomorrow, at myoffice. I should, by that time, know what sort of evidence is going to beused against you. I will be expecting you, Dr. Kellogg. "

He must have said more than that, but that was all that registered. Leonard wasn't really conscious of going back to the other room, until herealized that he was sitting in his relaxer chair, filling the glass withbrandy. There was only a little ice in it, but he didn't care. 

They were going to try him for murder for killing that little animal, andHam O'Brien had said they wouldn't, he'd promised he'd keep the case fromtrial and he hadn't, they were going to try him anyhow and if theyconvicted him they would take him out and shoot him for just killing asilly little animal he had killed it he'd kicked it and jumped on it hecould still hear it screaming and feel the horrible soft crunching underhis feet. .. . 

He gulped what was left in the glass and poured and gulped more. Then hestaggered to his feet and stumbled over to the couch and threw himselfonto it, face down, among the cushions. 

 * * * * *

Leslie Coombes found Nick Emmert with Victor Grego in the latter's officewhen he entered. They both rose to greet him, and Grego said "You'veheard?"

"Yes. O'Brien called me immediately. I called my client--my client ofrecord, that is--and told him. I'm afraid it was rather a shock to him. "

"It wasn't any shock to me, " Grego said as they sat down. "When HamO'Brien's as positive about anything as he was about that, I always expectthe worst. "

"Pendarvis is going to try the case himself, " Emmert said. "I alwaysthought he was a reasonable man, but what's he trying to do now? Cut theCompany's throat?"

"He isn't anti-Company. He isn't pro-Company either. He's just pro-law. The law says that a planet with native sapient inhabitants is a Class-IVplanet, and has to have a Class-IV colonial government. If Zarathustra isa Class-IV planet, he wants it established, and the proper laws applied. If it's a Class-IV planet, the Zarathustra Company is illegally chartered. It's his job to put a stop to illegality. Frederic Pendarvis' religion isthe law, and he is its priest. You never get anywhere by arguing religionwith a priest. "

They were both silent for a while after he had finished. Grego was lookingat the globe, and he realized, now, that while he was proud of it, hispride was the pride in a paste jewel that stands for a real one in a bankvault. Now he was afraid that the real jewel was going to be stolen fromhim. Nick Emmert was just afraid. 

"You were right yesterday, Victor. I wish Holloway'd killed that son of aKhooghra. Maybe it's not too late--"

"Yes, it is, Nick. It's too late to do anything like that. It's too lateto do anything but win the case in court. " He turned to Grego. "What areyour people doing?"

Grego took his eyes from the globe. "Ernest Mallin's studying all thefilmed evidence we have and all the descriptions of Fuzzy behavior, andtrying to prove that none of it is the result of sapient mentation. RuthOrtheris is doing the same, only she's working on the line of instinct andconditioned reflexes and nonsapient, single-stage reasoning. She has a lotof rats, and some dogs and monkeys, and a lot of apparatus, and sometechnician from Henry Stenson's instrument shop helping her. Juan Jimenezis studying mentation of Terran dogs, cats and primates, and Freyankholphs and Mimir black slinkers. "

"He hasn't turned up any simian or canine parallels to that funeral, hashe?"

Grego said nothing, merely shook his head. Emmert muttered somethinginaudible and probably indecent. 

"I didn't think he had. I only hope those Fuzzies don't get up in court, build a bonfire and start making speeches in Lingua Terra. "

Nick Emmert cried out in panic. "You believe they're sapient yourself!"

"Of course. Don't you?"

Grego laughed sourly. "Nick thinks you have to believe a thing to proveit. It helps but it isn't necessary. Say we're a debating team; we've beenhanded the negative of the question. _Resolved: that Fuzzies are SapientBeings. _ Personally, I think we have the short end of it, but that onlymeans we'll have to work harder on it. "

"You know, I was on a debating team at college, " Emmert said brightly. When that was disregarded, he added: "If I remember, the first thing wasdefinition of terms. "

Grego looked up quickly. "Leslie, I think Nick has something. What is thelegal definition of a sapient being?"

"As far as I know, there isn't any. Sapience is something that's justtaken for granted. "

"How about talk-and-build-a-fire?"

He shook his head. "_People of the Colony of Vishnu_ versus _EmilyMorrosh_, 612 A. E. " He told them about the infanticide case. "I waslooking up rulings on sapience; I passed the word on to Ham O'Brien. Youknow, what your people will have to do will be to produce a definition ofsapience, acceptable to the court, that will include all known sapientraces and at the same time exclude the Fuzzies. I don't envy them. "

"We need some Fuzzies of our own to study, " Grego said. 

"Too bad we can't get hold of Holloway's, " Emmert said. "Maybe we could, if he leaves them alone at his camp. "

"No. We can't risk that. " He thought for a moment. "Wait a moment. I thinkwe might be able to do it at that. Legally. "

IX

Jack Holloway saw Little Fuzzy eying the pipe he had laid in the ashtray, and picked it up, putting it in his mouth. Little Fuzzy lookedreproachfully at him and started to get down onto the floor. Pappy Jackwas mean; didn't he think a Fuzzy might want to smoke a pipe, too? Well, maybe it wouldn't hurt him. He picked Little Fuzzy up and set him back onhis lap, offering the pipestem. Little Fuzzy took a puff. He didn't coughover it; evidently he had learned how to avoid inhaling. 

"They scheduled the Kellogg trial first, " Gus Brannhard was saying, "andthere wasn't any way I could stop that. You see what the idea is? They'lltry him first, with Leslie Coombes running both the prosecution and thedefense, and if they can get him acquitted, it'll prejudice the sapienceevidence we introduce in your trial. "

Mamma Fuzzy made another try at intercepting the drink he was hoisting, but he frustrated that. Baby had stopped trying to sit on his head, andwas playing peek-a-boo from behind his whiskers. 

"First, " he continued, "they'll exclude every bit of evidence about theFuzzies that they can. That won't be much, but there'll be a fight to getany of it in. What they can't exclude, they'll attack. They'll attackcredibility. Of course, with veridication, they can't claim anybody'slying, but they can claim self-deception. You make a statement youbelieve, true or false, and the veridicator'll back you up on it. They'llattack qualifications on expert testimony. They'll quibble aboutstatements of fact and statements of opinion. And what they can't excludeor attack, they'll accept, and then deny that it's proof of sapience. 

"What the hell do they want for proof of sapience?" Gerd demanded. "Nuclear energy and contragravity and hyperdrive?"

"They will have a nice, neat, pedantic definition of sapience, tailoredespecially to exclude the Fuzzies, and they will present it in court andtry to get it accepted, and it's up to us to guess in advance what thatwill be, and have a refutation of it ready, and also a definition of ourown. "

"Their definition will have to include Khooghras. Gerd, do the Khooghrasbury their dead?"

"Hell, no; they eat them. But you have to give them this, they cook themfirst. "

"Look, we won't get anywhere arguing about what Fuzzies do and Khooghrasdon't do, " Rainsford said. "We'll have to get a definition of sapience. Remember what Ruth said Saturday night?"

Gerd van Riebeek looked as though he didn't want to remember what Ruth hadsaid, or even remember Ruth herself. Jack nodded, and repeated it. "I gotthe impression of non-sapient intelligence shading up to a sharp line, andthen sapience shading up from there, maybe a different color, or wavylines instead of straight ones. "

"That's a good graphic representation, " Gerd said. "You know, that line'sso sharp I'd be tempted to think of sapience as a result of mutation, except that I can't quite buy the same mutation happening in the same wayon so many different planets. "

Ben Rainsford started to say something, then stopped short when aconstabulary siren hooted over the camp. The Fuzzies looked upinterestedly. They knew what that was. Pappy Jack's friends in the blueclothes. Jack went to the door and opened it, putting the outside lighton. 

The car was landing; George Lunt, two of his men and two men in civilianclothes were getting out. Both the latter were armed, and one of themcarried a bundle under his arm. 

"Hello, George; come on in. "

"We want to talk to you, Jack. " Lunt's voice was strained, empty of warmthor friendliness. "At least, these men do. "

"Why, yes. Sure. "

He backed into the room to permit them to enter. Something was wrong;something bad had come up. Khadra came in first, placing himself besideand a little behind him. Lunt followed, glancing quickly around andplacing himself between Jack and the gunrack and also the holsteredpistols on the table. The third trooper let the two strangers in ahead ofhim, and then closed the door and put his back against it. He wondered ifthe court might have cancelled his bond and ordered him into custody. Thetwo strangers--a beefy man with a scrubby black mustache, and a smallerone with a thin, saturnine face--were looking expectantly at Lunt. Rainsford and van Riebeek were on their feet. Gus Brannhard leaned over torefill his glass, but did not rise. 

"Let me have the papers, " Lunt said to the beefy stranger. 

The other took a folded document and handed it over. 

"Jack, this isn't my idea, " Lunt said. "I don't want to do it, but I haveto. I wouldn't want to shoot you, either, but you make any resistance andI will. I'm no Kurt Borch; I know you, and I won't take any chances. "

"If you're going to serve that paper, serve it, " the bigger of the twostrangers said. "Don't stand yakking all night. "

"Jack, " Lunt said uncomfortably, "this is a court order to impound yourFuzzies as evidence in the Kellogg case. These men are deputy marshalsfrom Central Courts; they've been ordered to bring the Fuzzies intoMallorysport. "

"Let me see the order, Jack, " Brannhard said, still remaining seated. 

Lunt handed it to Jack, and he handed it across to Brannhard. Gus had beendrinking steadily all evening; maybe he was afraid he'd show it if hestood up. He looked at it briefly and nodded. 

"Court order, all right, signed by the Chief Justice. " He handed it back. "They have to take the Fuzzies, and that's all there is to it. Keep thatorder, though, and make them give you a signed and thumbprinted receipt. Type it up for them now, Jack. "

Gus wanted to busy him with something, so he wouldn't have to watch whatwas going on. The smaller of the two deputies had dropped the bundle fromunder his arm. It was a number of canvas sacks. He sat down at thetypewriter, closing his ears to the noises in the room, and wrote thereceipt, naming the Fuzzies and describing them, and specifying that theywere in good health and uninjured. One of them tried to climb to his lap, yeeking frantically; it clutched his shirt, but it was snatched away. Hewas finished with his work before the invaders were with theirs. They hadthree Fuzzies already in sacks. Khadra was catching Cinderella. Ko-Ko andLittle Fuzzy had run for the little door in the outside wall, but Lunt wasstanding with his heels against it, holding it shut; when they saw that, both of them began burrowing in the bedding. The third trooper and thesmaller of the two deputies dragged them out and stuffed them into sacks. 

He got to his feet, still stunned and only half comprehending, and tookthe receipt out of the typewriter. There was an argument about it; Lunttold the deputies to sign it or get the hell out without the Fuzzies. Theysigned, inked their thumbs and printed after their signatures. Jack gavethe paper to Gus, trying not to look at the six bulging, writhing sacks, or hear the frightened little sounds. 

"George, you'll let them have some of their things, won't you?" he asked. 

"Sure. What kind of things?"

"Their bedding. Some of their toys. "

"You mean this junk?" The smaller of the two deputies kicked theball-and-stick construction. "All we got orders to take is the Fuzzies. "

"You heard the gentleman. " Lunt made the word sound worse than son of aKhooghra. He turned to the two deputies. "Well, you have them; what areyou waiting for?"

Jack watched from the door as they put the sacks into the aircar, climbedin after them and lifted out. Then he came back and sat down at the table. 

"They don't know anything about court orders, " he said. "They don't knowwhy I didn't stop it. They think Pappy Jack let them down. "

"Have they gone, Jack?" Brannhard asked. "Sure?" Then he rose, reachingbehind him, and took up a little ball of white fur. Baby Fuzzy caught hisbeard with both tiny hands, yeeking happily. 

"Baby! They didn't get him!"

Brannhard disengaged the little hands from his beard and handed him over. 

"No, and they signed for him, too. " Brannhard downed what was left of hisdrink, got a cigar out of his pocket and lit it. "Now, we're going to goto Mallorysport and get the rest of them back. "

"But. .. . But the Chief Justice signed that order. He won't give them backjust because we ask him to. "

Brannhard made an impolite noise. "I'll bet everything I own Pendarvisnever saw that order. They have stacks of those things, signed in blank, in the Chief of the Court's office. If they had to wait to get one of thejudges to sign an order every time they wanted to subpoena a witness orimpound physical evidence, they'd never get anything done. If Ham O'Briendidn't think this up for himself, Leslie Coombes thought it up for him. "

"We'll use my airboat, " Gerd said. "You coming along, Ben? Let's getstarted. "

 * * * * *

He couldn't understand. The Big Ones in the blue clothes had been friends;they had given the whistles, and shown sorrow when the killed one was putin the ground. And why had Pappy Jack not gotten the big gun and stoppedthem. It couldn't be that he was afraid; Pappy Jack was afraid of nothing. 

The others were near, in bags like the one in which he had been put; hecould hear them, and called to them. Then he felt the edge of the littleknife Pappy Jack had made. He could cut his way out of this bag now andfree the others, but that would be no use. They were in one of the thingsthe Big Ones went up into the sky in, and if he got out now, there wouldbe nowhere to go and they would be caught at once. Better to wait. 

The one thing that really worried him was that he would not know wherethey were being taken. When they did get away, how would they ever findPappy Jack again?

 * * * * *

Gus Brannhard was nervous, showing it by being overtalkative, and thatworried Jack. He'd stopped twice at mirrors along the hallway to make surethat his gold-threaded gray neckcloth was properly knotted and that hisblack jacket was zipped up far enough and not too far. Now, in front ofthe door marked THE CHIEF JUSTICE, he paused before pushing the button tofluff his newly shampooed beard. 

There were two men in the Chief Justice's private chambers. Pendarvis hehad seen once or twice, but their paths had never crossed. He had a goodface, thin and ascetic, the face of a man at peace with himself. With himwas Mohammed Ali O'Brien, who seemed surprised to see them enter, and thenapprehensive. Nobody shook hands; the Chief Justice bowed slightly andinvited them to be seated. 

"Now, " he continued, when they found chairs, "Miss Ugatori tells me thatyou are making complaint against an action by Mr. O'Brien here. "

"We are indeed, your Honor. " Brannhard opened his briefcase and producedtwo papers--the writ, and the receipt for the Fuzzies, handing them acrossthe desk. "My client and I wish to know upon what basis of legality yourHonor sanctioned this act, and by what right Mr. O'Brien sent his officersto Mr. Holloway's camp to snatch these little people from their friend andprotector, Mr. Holloway. "

The judge looked at the two papers. "As you know, Miss Ugatori took printsof them when you called to make this appointment. I've seen them. Butbelieve me, Mr. Brannhard, this is the first time I have seen the originalof this writ. You know how these things are signed in blank. It's apractice that has saved considerable time and effort, and until now theyhave only been used when there was no question that I or any other judgewould approve. Such a question should certainly have existed in this case, because had I seen this writ I would never have signed it. " He turned tothe now fidgeting Chief Prosecutor. "Mr. O'Brien, " he said, "one simplydoes not impound sapient beings as evidence, as, say, one impounds aveldbeest calf in a brand-alteration case. The fact that the sapience ofthese Fuzzies is still _sub judice_ includes the presumption of itspossibility. Now you know perfectly well that the courts may take noaction in the face of the possibility that some innocent person may sufferwrong. "

"And, your Honor, " Brannhard leaped into the breach, "it cannot be deniedthat these Fuzzies have suffered a most outrageous wrong! Picturethem--no, picture innocent and artless children, for that is what theseFuzzies are, happy trusting little children, who, until then, had knownonly kindness and affection--rudely kidnapped, stuffed into sacks bybrutal and callous men--"

"Your Honor!" O'Brien's face turned even blacker than the hot sun of Agnihad made it. "I cannot hear officers of the court so characterized withoutraising my voice in protest!"

"Mr. O'Brien seems to forget that he is speaking in the presence of twoeye witnesses to this brutal abduction. "

"If the officers of the court need defense, Mr. O'Brien, the court willdefend them. I believe that you should presently consider a defense ofyour own actions. "

"Your Honor, I insist that I only acted as I felt to be my duty, " O'Briensaid. "These Fuzzies are a key exhibit in the case of _People_ versus_Kellogg_, since only by demonstration of their sapience can anyprosecution against the defendant be maintained. "

"Then why, " Brannhard demanded, "did you endanger them in this criminallyreckless manner?"

"Endanger them?" O'Brien was horrified. "Your Honor, I acted only toinsure their safety and appearance in court. "

"So you took them away from the only man on this planet who knows anythingabout their proper care, a man who loves them as he would his own humanchildren, and you subjected them to abuse, which, for all you knew, mighthave been fatal to them. "

Judge Pendarvis nodded. "I don't believe, Mr. Brannhard, that you haveoverstated the case. Mr. O'Brien, I take a very unfavorable view of youraction in this matter. You had no right to have what are at leastputatively sapient beings treated in this way, and even viewing them asmere physical evidence I must agree with Mr. Brannhard's characterizationof your conduct as criminally reckless. Now, speaking judicially, I orderyou to produce those Fuzzies immediately and return them to the custody ofMr. Holloway. "

"Well, of course, your Honor. " O'Brien had been growing progressivelydistraught, and his face now had the gray-over-brown hue of a walnutgunstock that has been out in the rain all day. "It'll take an hour or soto send for them and have them brought here. "

"You mean they're not in this building?" Pendarvis asked. 

"Oh, no, your Honor, there are no facilities here. I had them taken toScience Center--"

"_What?_"

Jack had determined to keep his mouth shut and let Gus do the talking. Theexclamation was literally forced out of him. Nobody noticed; it had alsobeen forced out of both Gus Brannhard and Judge Pendarvis. Pendarvisleaned forward and spoke with dangerous mildness:

"Do you refer, Mr. O'Brien, to the establishment of the Division ofScientific Study and Research of the chartered Zarathustra Company?"

"Why, yes; they have facilities for keeping all kinds of live animals, andthey do all the scientific work for--"

Pendarvis cursed blasphemously. Brannhard looked as startled as though hisown briefcase had jumped at his throat and tried to bite him. He didn'tlook half as startled as Ham O'Brien did. 

"So you think, " Pendarvis said, recovering his composure with visibleeffort, "that the logical custodian of prosecution evidence in a murdertrial is the defendant? Mr. O'Brien, you simply enlarge my view of thepossible!"

"The Zarathustra Company isn't the defendant, " O'Brien argued sullenly. 

"Not of record, no, " Brannhard agreed. "But isn't the ZarathustraCompany's scientific division headed by one Leonard Kellogg?"

"Dr. Kellogg's been relieved of his duties, pending the outcome of thetrial. The division is now headed by Dr. Ernst Mallin. "

"Chief scientific witness for the defense; I fail to see any practicaldifference. "

"Well, Mr. Emmert said it would be all right, " O'Brien mumbled. 

"Jack, did you hear that?" Brannhard asked. "Treasure it in your memory. You may have to testify to it in court sometime. " He turned to the ChiefJustice. "Your Honor, may I suggest the recovery of these Fuzzies beentrusted to Colonial Marshal Fane, and may I further suggest that Mr. O'Brien be kept away from any communication equipment until they arerecovered. "

"That sounds like a prudent suggestion, Mr. Brannhard. Now, I'll give youan order for the surrender of the Fuzzies, and a search warrant, just tobe on the safe side. And, I think, an Orphans' Court form naming Mr. Holloway as guardian of these putatively sapient beings. What are theirnames? Oh, I have them here on this receipt. " He smiled pleasantly. "See, Mr. O'Brien, we're saving you a lot of trouble. "

O'Brien had little enough wit to protest. "But these are the defendant andhis attorney in another murder case I'm prosecuting, " he began. 

Pendarvis stopped smiling. "Mr. O'Brien, I doubt if you'll be allowed toprosecute anything or anybody around here any more, and I am specificallyrelieving you of any connection with either the Kellogg or the Hollowaytrial, and if I hear any argument out of you about it, I will issue abench warrant for your arrest on charges of malfeasance in office. "

X

Colonial Marshal Max Fane was as heavy as Gus Brannhard and considerablyshorter. Wedged between them on the back seat of the marshal's car, JackHolloway contemplated the backs of the two uniformed deputies on the frontseat and felt a happy smile spread through him. Going to get his Fuzziesback. Little Fuzzy, and Ko-Ko, and Mike, and Mamma Fuzzy, and Mitzi, andCinderella; he named them over and imagined them crowding around him, happy to be back with Pappy Jack. 

The car settled onto the top landing stage of the Company's ScienceCenter, and immediately a Company cop came running up. Gus opened thedoor, and Jack climbed out after him. 

"Hey, you can't land here!" the cop was shouting. "This is for Companyexecutives only!"

Max Fane emerged behind them and stepped forward; the two deputies piledout from in front. 

"The hell you say, now, " Fane said. "A court order lands anywhere. Bringhim along, boys; we wouldn't want him to go and bump himself on acommunication screen anywhere. "

The Company cop started to protest, then subsided and fell in between thedeputies. Maybe it was beginning to dawn on him that the Federation courtswere bigger than the chartered Zarathustra Company after all. Or maybe hejust thought there'd been a revolution. 

Leonard Kellogg's--temporarily Ernst Mallin's--office was on the firstfloor of the penthouse, counting down from the top landing stage. Whenthey stepped from the escalator, the hall was crowded with office people, gabbling excitedly in groups; they all stopped talking as soon as they sawwhat was coming. In the division chief's outer office three or four girlsjumped to their feet; one of them jumped into the bulk of Marshal Fane, which had interposed itself between her and the communication screen. Theywere all shooed out into the hall, and one of the deputies was droppedthere with the prisoner. The middle office was empty. Fane took hisbadgeholder in his left hand as he pushed through the door to the inneroffice. 

Kellogg's--temporarily Mallin's--secretary seemed to have preceded them bya few seconds; she was standing in front of the desk sputteringincoherently. Mallin, starting to rise from his chair, froze, hunchedforward over the desk. Juan Jimenez, standing in the middle of the room, seemed to have seen them first; he was looking about wildly as though forsome way of escape. 

Fane pushed past the secretary and went up to the desk, showing Mallin hisbadge and then serving the papers. Mallin looked at him in bewilderment. 

"But we're keeping those Fuzzies for Mr. O'Brien, the Chief Prosecutor, "he said. "We can't turn them over without his authorization. "

"This, " Max Fane said gently, "is an order of the court, issued by ChiefJustice Pendarvis. As for Mr. O'Brien, I doubt if he's Chief Prosecutorany more. In fact, I suspect that he's in jail. _And that_, " he shouted, leaning forward as far as his waistline would permit and banging on thedesk with his fist, "_is where I'm going to stuff you, if you don't getthose Fuzzies in here and turn them over immediately!_"

If Fane had suddenly metamorphosed himself into a damnthing, it couldn'thave shaken Mallin more. Involuntarily he cringed from the marshal, andthat finished him. 

"But I can't, " he protested. "We don't know exactly where they are at themoment. "

"You don't know. " Fane's voice sank almost to a whisper. "You admit you'reholding them here, but you . .. Don't . .. Know . .. Where. _Now start overagain; tell the truth this time!_"

At that moment, the communication screen began making a fuss. RuthOrtheris, in a light blue tailored costume, appeared in it. 

"Dr. Mallin, what _is_ going on here?" she wanted to know. "I just came infrom lunch, and a gang of men are tearing my office up. Haven't you foundthe Fuzzies yet?"

"What's that?" Jack yelled. At the same time, Mallin was almost screaming:"Ruth! Shut up! Blank out and get out of the building!"

With surprising speed for a man of his girth, Fane whirled and was infront of the screen, holding his badge out. 

"I'm Colonel Marshal Fane. Now, young woman; I want you up here rightaway. Don't make me send anybody after you, because I won't like that andneither will you. "

"Right away, Marshal. " She blanked the screen. 

Fane turned to Mallin. "Now. " He wasn't bothering with vocal tricks anymore. "Are you going to tell me the truth, or am I going to run you in andput a veridicator on you? Where are those Fuzzies?"

"But I don't know!" Mallin wailed. "Juan, you tell him; you took charge ofthem. I haven't seen them since they were brought here. "

Jack managed to fight down the fright that was clutching at him and gotcontrol of his voice. 

"If anything's happened to those Fuzzies, you two are going to envy KurtBorch before I'm through with you, " he said. 

"All right, how about it?" Fane asked Jimenez. "Start with when you andHam O'Brien picked up the Fuzzies at Central Courts Building last night. 

"Well, we brought them here. I'd gotten some cages fixed up for them, and--"

Ruth Ortheris came in. She didn't try to avoid Jack's eyes, nor did shetry to brazen it out with him. She merely nodded distantly, as thoughthey'd met on a ship sometime, and sat down. 

"What happened, Marshal?" she asked. "Why are you here with thesegentlemen?"

"The court's ordered the Fuzzies returned to Mr. Holloway. " Mallin was ina dither. "He has some kind a writ or something, and we don't know wherethey are. "

"Oh, _no!_" Ruth's face, for an instant, was dismay itself. "Not when--"Then she froze shut. 

"I came in about o-seven-hundred, " Jimenez was saying, "to give them foodand water, and they'd broken out of their cages. The netting was brokenloose on one cage and the Fuzzy that had been in it had gotten out and letthe others out. They got into my office--they made a perfect shambles ofit--and got out the door into the hall, and now we don't know where theyare. And I don't know how they did any of it. "

Cages built for something with no hands and almost no brains. Ever sinceKellogg and Mallin had come to the camp, Mallin had been hypnotizinghimself into the just-silly-little-animals doctrine. He must havesucceeded; last night he'd acted accordingly. 

"We want to see the cages, " Jack said. 

"Yeah. " Fane went to the outer door. "Miguel. "

The deputy came in, herding the Company cop ahead of him. 

"You heard what happened?" Fane asked. 

"Yeah. Big Fuzzy jailbreak. What did they do, make little wooden pistolsand bluff their way out?"

"By God, I wouldn't put it past them. Come along. Bring Chummy along withyou; he knows the inside of this place better than we do. Piet, call in. We want six more men. Tell Chang to borrow from the constabulary if he hasto. "

"Wait a minute, " Jack said. He turned to Ruth. "What do you know aboutthis?"

"Well, not much. I was with Dr. Mallin here when Mr. Grego--I mean, Mr. O'Brien--called to tell us that the Fuzzies were going to be kept heretill the trial. We were going to fix up a room for them, but till thatcould be done, Juan got some cages to put them in. That was all I knewabout it till o-nine-thirty, when I came in and found everything in anuproar and was told that the Fuzzies had gotten loose during the night. Iknew they couldn't get out of the building, so I went to my office and labto start overhauling some equipment we were going to need with theFuzzies. About ten-hundred, I found I couldn't do anything with it, and myassistant and I loaded it on a pickup truck and took it to Henry Stenson'sinstrument shop. By the time I was through there, I had lunch and thencame back here. "

He wondered briefly how a polyencephalographic veridicator would react tosome of those statements; might be a good idea if Max Fane found out. 

"I'll stay here, " Gus Brannhard was saying, "and see if I can get somemore truth out of these people. "

"Why don't you screen the hotel and tell Gerd and Ben what's happened?" heasked. "Gerd used to work here; maybe he could help us hunt. "

"Good idea. Piet, tell our re-enforcements to stop at the Mallory on theway and pick him up. " Fane turned to Jimenez. "Come along; show us whereyou had these Fuzzies and how they got away. "

 * * * * *

"You say one of them broke out of his cage and then released the others, "Jack said to Jimenez as they were going down on the escalator. "Do youknow which one it was?"

Jimenez shook his head. "We just took them out of the bags and put theminto the cages. "

That would be Little Fuzzy; he'd always been the brains of the family. With his leadership, they might have a chance. The trouble was that thisplace was full of dangers Fuzzies knew nothing about--radiation andpoisons and electric wiring and things like that. If they really hadescaped. That was a possibility that began worrying Jack. 

On each floor they passed going down, he could glimpse parties of Companyemployees in the halls, armed with nets and blankets and other catchingequipment. When they got off Jimenez led them through a big room of glasscases--mounted specimens and articulated skeletons of Zarathustranmammals. More people were there, looking around and behind and even intothe cases. He began to think that the escape was genuine, and not just acover-up for the murder of the Fuzzies. 

Jimenez took them down a narrow hall beyond to an open door at the end. Inside, the permanent night light made a blue-white glow; a swivel chairstood just inside the door. Jimenez pointed to it. 

"They must have gotten up on that to work the latch and open the door, " hesaid. 

It was like the doors at the camp, spring latch, with a handle instead ofa knob. They'd have learned how to work it from watching him. Fane wastrying the latch. 

"Not too stiff, " he said. "Your little fellows strong enough to work it?"

He tried it and agreed. "Sure. And they'd be smart enough to do it, too. Even Baby Fuzzy, the one your men didn't get, would be able to figure thatout. "

"And look what they did to my office, " Jimenez said, putting on thelights. 

They'd made quite a mess of it. They hadn't delayed long to do it, justthrown things around. Everything was thrown off the top of the desk. Theyhad dumped the wastebasket, and left it dumped. He saw that and chuckled. The escape had been genuine all right. 

"Probably hunting for things they could use as weapons, and doing as muchdamage as they could in the process. " There was evidently a pretty widestreak of vindictiveness in Fuzzy character. "I don't think they like you, Juan. "

"Wouldn't blame them, " Fane said. "Let's see what kind of a houdini theydid on these cages now. "

The cages were in a room--file room, storeroom, junk room--behindJimenez's office. It had a spring lock, too, and the Fuzzies had draggedone of the cages over and stood on it to open the door. The cagesthemselves were about three feet wide and five feet long, with plywoodbottoms, wooden frames and quarter-inch netting on the sides and tops. Thetops were hinged, and fastened with hasps, and bolts slipped through thestaples with nuts screwed on them. The nuts had been unscrewed from fiveand the bolts slipped out; the sixth cage had been broken open from theinside, the netting cut away from the frame at one corner and bent back ina triangle big enough for a Fuzzy to crawl through. 

"I can't understand that, " Jimenez was saying. "Why that wire looks asthough it had been cut. "

"It was cut. Marshal, I'd pull somebody's belt about this, if I were you. Your men aren't very careful about searching prisoners. One of the Fuzzieshid a knife out on them. " He remembered how Little Fuzzy and Ko-Ko hadburrowed into the bedding in apparently unreasoning panic, and explainedabout the little spring-steel knives he had made. "I suppose he palmed itand hugged himself into a ball, as though he was scared witless, when theyput him in the bag. "

"Waited till he was sure he wouldn't get caught before he used it, too, "the marshal said. "That wire's soft enough to cut easily. " He turned toJimenez. "You people ought to be glad I'm ineligible for jury duty. Whydon't you just throw it in and let Kellogg cop a plea?"

 * * * * *

Gerd van Riebeek stopped for a moment in the doorway and looked into whathad been Leonard Kellogg's office. The last time he'd been here, Kellogghad had him on the carpet about that land-prawn business. Now Ernst Mallinwas sitting in Kellogg's chair, trying to look unconcerned and not makinga very good job of it. Gus Brannhard sprawled in an armchair, smoking acigar and looking at Mallin as he would look at a river pig when hedoubted whether it was worth shooting it or not. A uniformed deputy turnedquickly, then went back to studying an elaborate wall chart showing theinterrelation of Zarathustran mammals--he'd made the original of thatchart himself. And Ruth Ortheris sat apart from the desk and the threemen, smoking. She looked up and then, when she saw that he was lookingpast and away from her, she lowered her eyes. 

"You haven't found them?" he asked Brannhard. 

The fluffy-bearded lawyer shook his head. "Jack has a gang down in thecellar, working up. Max is in the psychology lab, putting the Company copswho were on duty last night under veridication. They all claim, and theveridicator backs them up, that it was impossible for the Fuzzies to getout of the building. "

"They don't know what's impossible, for a Fuzzy. "

"That's what I told him. He didn't give me any argument, either. He'spretty impressed with how they got out of those cages. "

Ruth spoke. "Gerd, we didn't hurt them. We weren't going to hurt them atall. Juan put them in cages because we didn't have any other place forthem, but we were going to fix up a nice room, where they could playtogether. .. . " Then she must have seen that he wasn't listening, andstopped, crushing out her cigarette and rising. "Dr. Mallin, if thesepeople haven't any more questions to ask me, I have a lot of work to do. "

"You want to ask her anything, Gerd?" Brannhard inquired. 

Once he had had something very important he had wanted to ask her. He wasglad, now, that he hadn't gotten around to it. Hell, she was so married tothe Company it'd be bigamy if she married him too. 

"No, I don't want to talk to her at all. "

She started for the door, then hesitated. "Gerd, I. .. . " she began. Thenshe went out. Gus Brannhard looked after her, and dropped the ash of hiscigar on Leonard Kellogg's--now Ernst Mallin's--floor. 

 * * * * *

Gerd detested her, and she wouldn't have had any respect for him if hedidn't. She ought to have known that something like this would happen. Italways did, in the business. A smart girl, in the business, never gotinvolved with any one man; she always got herself four or five boyfriends, on all possible sides, and played them off one against another. 

She'd have to get out of the Science Center right away. Marshal Fane wasquestioning people under veridication; she didn't dare let him get aroundto her. She didn't dare go to her office; the veridicator was in the labacross the hall, and that's where he was working. And she didn't dare--

Yes, she could do that, by screen. She went into an office down the hall;a dozen people recognized her at once and began bombarding her withquestions about the Fuzzies. She brushed them off and went to a screen, punching a combination. After a slight delay, an elderly man with athin-lipped, bloodless face appeared. When he recognized her, there was abrief look of annoyance on the thin face. 

"Mr. Stenson, " she began, before he could say anything: "That apparatus Ibrought to your shop this morning--the sensory-response detector--we'vemade a simply frightful mistake. There's nothing wrong with it whatever, and if anything's done with it, it may cause serious damage. "

"I don't think I understand, Dr. Ortheris. "

"Well, it was a perfectly natural mistake. You see, we're all at our wits'end here. Mr. Holloway and his lawyer and the Colonial Marshal are herewith an order from Judge Pendarvis for the return of those Fuzzies. Noneof us know what we're doing at all. Why the whole trouble with theapparatus was the fault of the operator. We'll have to have it backimmediately, all of it. "

"I see, Dr. Ortheris. " The old instrument maker looked worried. "But I'mafraid the apparatus has already gone to the workroom. Mr. Stephenson hasit now, and I can't get in touch with him at present. If the mistake canbe corrected, what do you want done?"

"Just hold it; I'll call or send for it. "

She blanked the screen. Old Johnson, the chief data synthesist, tried todetain her with some question. 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. I can't stop now. I have to go over to CompanyHouse right away. "

 * * * * *

The suite at the Hotel Mallory was crowded when Jack Holloway returnedwith Gerd van Riebeek; it was noisy with voices, and the ventilators werelaboring to get rid of the tobacco smoke. Gus Brannhard, Ben Rainsford andBaby Fuzzy were meeting the press. 

"Oh, Mr. Holloway!" somebody shouted as he entered. "Have you found themyet?"

"No; we've been all over Science Center from top to bottom. We know theywent down a few floors from where they'd been caged, but that's all. Idon't think they could have gotten outside; the only exit on the groundlevel's through a vestibule where a Company policeman was on duty, andthere's no way for them to have climbed down from any of the terraces orlanding stages. "

"Well, Mr. Holloway, I hate to suggest this, " somebody else said, "buthave you eliminated the possibility that they may have hidden in a trashbin and been dumped into the mass-energy converter?"

"We thought of that. The converter's underground, in a vault that can beentered only by one door, and that was locked. No trash was disposed ofbetween the time they were brought there and the time the search started, and everything that's been sent to the converter since has been checkedpiece by piece. "

"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Mr. Holloway, and I know that everybodyhearing this will be glad, too. I take it you've not given up looking forthem?"

"Are we on the air now? No, I have not; I'm staying here in Mallorysportuntil I either find them or am convinced that they aren't in the city. AndI am offering a reward of two thousand sols apiece for their return to me. If you'll wait a moment, I'll have descriptions ready for you. .. . "

 * * * * *

Victor Grego unstoppered the refrigerated cocktail jug. "More?" he askedLeslie Coombes. 

"Yes, thank you. " Coombes held his glass until it was filled. "As you say, Victor, you made the decision, but you made it on my advice, and theadvice was bad. "

He couldn't disagree, even politely, with that. He hoped it hadn't beenruinously bad. One thing, Leslie wasn't trying to pass the buck, andconsidering how Ham O'Brien had mishandled his end of it, he could havedone so quite plausibly. 

"I used bad judgment, " Coombes said dispassionately, as though discussingsome mistake Hitler had made, or Napoleon. "I thought O'Brien wouldn't tryto use one of those presigned writs, and I didn't think Pendarvis wouldadmit, publicly, that he signed court orders in blank. He's been severelycriticized by the press about that. "

He hadn't thought Brannhard and Holloway would try to fight a court ordereither. That was one of the consequences of being too long in a seeminglyirresistible position; you didn't expect resistance. Kellogg hadn'texpected Jack Holloway to order him off his land grant. Kurt Borch hadthought all he needed to do with a gun was pull it and wave it around. AndJimenez had expected the Fuzzies to just sit in their cages. 

"I wonder where they got to, " Coombes was saying. "I understand theycouldn't be found at all in the building. "

"Ruth Ortheris has an idea. She got away from Science Center before Fanecould get hold of her and veridicate her. It seems she and an assistanttook some apparatus out, about ten o'clock, in a truck. She thinks theFuzzies hitched a ride with her. I know that sounds rather improbable, buthell, everything else sounds impossible. I'll have it followed up. Maybewe can find them before Holloway does. They're not inside Science Center, that's sure. " His own glass was empty; he debated a refill and votedagainst it. "O'Brien's definitely out, I take it?"

"Completely. Pendarvis gave him his choice of resigning or facingmalfeasance charges. "

"They couldn't really convict him of malfeasance for that, could they?Misfeasance, maybe, but--"

"They could charge him. And then they could interrogate him underveridication about his whole conduct in office, and you know what theywould bring out, " Coombes said. "He almost broke an arm signing hisresignation. He's still Attorney General of the Colony, of course; Nickissued a statement supporting him. That hasn't done Nick as much harm asO'Brien could do spilling what he knows about Residency affairs. 

"Now Brannhard is talking about bringing suit against the Company, andhe's furnishing copies of all the Fuzzy films Holloway has to the newsservices. Interworld News is going hog-wild with it, and even the serviceswe control can't play it down too much. I don't know who's going to beprosecuting these cases; but whoever it is, he won't dare pull anypunches. And the whole thing's made Pendarvis hostile to us. I know, thelaw and the evidence and nothing but the law and the evidence, but theevidence is going to filter into his conscious mind through thishostility. He's called a conference with Brannhard and myself for tomorrowafternoon; I don't know what that's going to be like. "

XI

The two lawyers had risen hastily when Chief Justice Pendarvis entered; heresponded to their greetings and seated himself at his desk, reaching forthe silver cigar box and taking out a panatela. Gustavus AdolphusBrannhard picked up the cigar he had laid aside and began puffing on it;Leslie Coombes took a cigarette from his case. They both looked at him, waiting like two drawn weapons--a battle ax and a rapier. 

"Well, gentlemen, as you know, we have a couple of homicide cases andnobody to prosecute them, " he began. 

"Why bother, your Honor?" Coombes asked. "Both charges are completelyfrivolous. One man killed a wild animal, and the other killed a man whowas trying to kill him. "

"Well, your Honor, I don't believe my client is guilty of anything, legally or morally, " Brannhard said. "I want that established by anacquittal. " He looked at Coombes. "I should think Mr. Coombes would bejust as anxious to have his client cleared of any stigma of murder, too. "

"I am quite agreed. People who have been charged with crimes ought to havepublic vindication if they are innocent. Now, in the first place, Iplanned to hold the Kellogg trial first, and then the Holloway trial. Areyou both satisfied with that arrangement?"

"Absolutely not, your Honor, " Brannhard said promptly. "The whole basis ofthe Holloway defense is that this man Borch was killed in commission of afelony. We're prepared to prove that, but we don't want our caseprejudiced by an earlier trial. "

Coombes laughed. "Mr. Brannhard wants to clear his client by preconvictingmine. We can't agree to anything like that. "

"Yes, and he is making the same objection to trying your client first. Well, I'm going to remove both objections. I'm going to order the twocases combined, and both defendants tried together. "

A momentary glow of unholy glee on Gus Brannhard's face; Coombes didn'tlike the idea at all. 

"Your Honor, I trust that that suggestion was only made facetiously, " hesaid. 

"It wasn't, Mr. Coombes. "

"Then if your Honor will not hold me in contempt for saying so, it is themost shockingly irregular--I won't go so far as to say improper--trialprocedure I've ever heard of. This is not a case of accomplices chargedwith the same crime; this is a case of two men charged with differentcriminal acts, and the conviction of either would mean the almostautomatic acquittal of the other. I don't know who's going to be named totake Mohammed O'Brien's place, but I pity him from the bottom of my heart. Why, Mr. Brannhard and I could go off somewhere and play poker while theprosecutor would smash the case to pieces. "

"Well, we won't have just one prosecutor, Mr. Coombes, we will have two. I'll swear you and Mr. Brannhard in as special prosecutors, and you canprosecute Mr. Brannhard's client, and he yours. I think that would removeany further objections. "

It was all he could do to keep his face judicially grave and unmirthful. Brannhard was almost purring, like a big tiger that had just gotten thebetter of a young goat; Leslie Coombes's suavity was beginning to crumbleslightly at the edges. 

"Your Honor, that is a most excellent suggestion, " Brannhard declared. "Iwill prosecute Mr. Coombes's client with the greatest pleasure in theuniverse. "

"Well, all I can say, your Honor, is that if the first proposal was themost irregular I had ever heard, the record didn't last long!"

"Why, Mr. Coombes, I went over the law and the rules of jurisprudence verycarefully, and I couldn't find a word that could be construed asdisallowing such a procedure. "

"I'll bet you didn't find any precedent for it either!"

Leslie Coombes should have known better than that; in colonial law, youcan find a precedent for almost anything. 

"How much do you bet, Leslie?" Brannhard asked, a larcenous gleam in hiseye. 

"Don't let him take your money away from you. I found, inside an hour, sixteen precedents, from twelve different planetary jurisdictions. "

"All right, your Honor, " Coombes capitulated. "But I hope you know whatyou're doing. You're turning a couple of cases of the People of the Colonyinto a common civil lawsuit. "

Gus Brannhard laughed. "What else is it?" he demanded. "_Friends of LittleFuzzy_ versus _The chartered Zarathustra Company_; I'm bringing action asfriend of incompetent aborigines for recognition of sapience, and Mr. Coombes, on behalf of the Zarathustra Company, is contesting to preservethe Company's charter, and that's all there is or ever was to this case. "

That was impolite of Gus. Leslie Coombes had wanted to go on to the endpretending that the Company charter had absolutely nothing to do with it. 

 * * * * *

There was an unending stream of reports of Fuzzies seen here and there, often simultaneously in impossibly distant parts of the city. Some werefrom publicity seekers and pathological liars and crackpots; some were theresult of honest mistakes or overimaginativeness. There was some reason tosuspect that not a few had originated with the Company, to confuse thesearch. One thing did come to light which heartened Jack Holloway. Anintensive if concealed search was being made by the Company police, and bythe Mallorysport police department, which the Company controlled. 

Max Fane was giving every available moment to the hunt. This wasn'tbecause of ill will for the Company, though that was present, nor becausethe Chief Justice was riding him. The Colonial Marshal was pro-Fuzzy. Sowere the Colonial Constabulary, over whom Nick Emmert's administrationseemed to have little if any authority. Colonel Ian Ferguson, thecommandant, had his appointment direct from the Colonial Office on Terra. He had called by screen to offer his help, and George Lunt, over on Beta, screened daily to learn what progress was being made. 

Living at the Hotel Mallory was expensive, and Jack had to sell somesunstones. The Company gem buyers were barely civil to him; he didn't tryto be civil at all. There was also a noticeable coolness toward him at thebank. On the other hand, on several occasions, Space Navy officers andratings down from Xerxes Base went out of their way to accost him, introduce themselves, shake hands with him and give him their best wishes. 

Once, in one of the weather-domed business centers, an elderly man withwhite hair showing under his black beret greeted him. 

"Mr. Holloway I want to tell you how grieved I am to learn about thedisappearance of those little people of yours, " he said. "I'm afraidthere's nothing I can do to help you, but I hope they turn up safely. "

"Why, thank you, Mr. Stenson. " He shook hands with the old masterinstrument maker. "If you could make me a pocket veridicator, to use onsome of these people who claim they saw them, it would be a big help. "

"Well, I do make rather small portable veridicators for the constabulary, but I think what you need is an instrument for detection of psychopaths, and that's slightly beyond science at present. But if you're stillprospecting for sunstones, I have an improved micro-ray scanner I justdeveloped, and. .. . "

He walked with Stenson to his shop, had a cup of tea and looked at thescanner. From Stenson's screen, he called Max Fane. Six more people hadclaimed to have seen the Fuzzies. 

Within a week, the films taken at the camp had been shown so frequently ontelecast as to wear out their interest value. Baby, however, was stillavailable for new pictures, and in a few days a girl had to be hired totake care of his fan mail. Once, entering a bar, Jack thought he saw Babysitting on a woman's head. A second look showed that it was only alife-sized doll, held on with an elastic band. Within a week, he wasseeing Baby Fuzzy hats all over town, and shop windows were full oflife-sized Fuzzy dolls. 

In the late afternoon, two weeks after the Fuzzies had vanished, MarshalFane dropped him at the hotel. They sat in the car for a moment, and Fanesaid:

"I think this is the end of it. We're all out of cranks and exhibitionistsnow. "

He nodded. "That woman we were talking to. She's crazy as a bedbug. "

"Yeah. In the past ten years she's confessed to every unsolved crime onthe planet. It shows you how hard up we are that I waste your time andmine listening to her. "

"Max, nobody's seen them. You think they just aren't, any more, don'tyou?"

The fat man looked troubled. "Well, Jack, it isn't so much that nobody'sseen them. Nobody's seen any trace of them. There are land-prawns allaround, but nobody's found a cracked shell. And six active, playful, inquisitive Fuzzies ought to be getting into things. They ought to beraiding food markets, and fruit stands, getting into places andransacking. But there hasn't been a thing. The Company police have stoppedlooking for them now. "

"Well, I won't. They must be around somewhere. " He shook Fane's hand, andgot out of the car. "You've been awfully helpful, Max. I want you to knowhow much I thank you. "

He watched the car lift away, and then looked out over the city--a vistaof treetop green, with roofs and the domes of shopping centers andbusiness centers and amusement centers showing through, and the angularbuttes of tall buildings rising above. The streetless contragravity cityof a new planet that had never known ground traffic. The Fuzzies could behiding anywhere among those trees--or they could all be dead in someman-made trap. He thought of all the deadly places into which they couldhave wandered. Machinery, dormant and quiet, until somebody threw aswitch. Conduits, which could be flooded without warning, or filled withscalding steam or choking gas. Poor little Fuzzies, they'd think a citywas as safe as the woods of home, where there was nothing worse thanharpies and damnthings. 

Gus Brannhard was out when he went down to the suite; Ben Rainsford was ata reading screen, studying a psychology text, and Gerd was working at adesk that had been brought in. Baby was playing on the floor with thebright new toys they had gotten for him. When Pappy Jack came in, hedropped them and ran to be picked up and held. 

"George called, " Gerd said. "They have a family of Fuzzies at the postnow. "

"Well, that's great. " He tried to make it sound enthusiastic. "How many?"

"Five, three males and two females. They call them Dr. Crippen, Dillinger, Ned Kelly, Lizzie Borden and Calamity Jane. "

Wouldn't it be just like a bunch of cops to hang names like that oninnocent Fuzzies?

"Why don't you call the post and say hello to them?" Ben asked. 

"Baby likes them; he'd think it was fun to talk to them again. "

He let himself be urged into it, and punched out the combination. Theywere nice Fuzzies; almost, but of course not quite, as nice as his own. 

"If your family doesn't turn up in time for the trial, have Gus subpoenaours, " Lunt told him. "You ought to have some to produce in court. Twoweeks from now, this mob of ours will be doing all kinds of things. Youought to see them now, and we only got them yesterday afternoon. "

He said he hoped he'd have his own by then; he realized that he was sayingit without much conviction. 

They had a drink when Gus came in. He was delighted with the offer fromLunt. Another one who didn't expect to see Pappy Jack's Fuzzies aliveagain. 

"I'm not doing a damn thing here, " Rainsford said. "I'm going back to Betatill the trial. Maybe I can pick up some ideas from George Lunt's Fuzzies. I'm damned if I'm getting away from this crap!" He gestured at the readingscreen. "All I have is a vocabulary, and I don't know what half the wordsmean. " He snapped it off. "I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Jimenezmightn't have been right and Ruth Ortheris is wrong. Maybe you can be justa little bit sapient. "

"Maybe it's possible to be sapient and not know it, " Gus said. "Like thecharacter in the old French play who didn't know he was talking prose. "

"What do you mean, Gus?" Gerd asked. 

"I'm not sure I know. It's just an idea that occurred to me today. Kick itaround and see if you can get anything out of it. "

 * * * * *

"I believe the difference lies in the area of consciousness, " Ernst Mallinwas saying. "You all know, of course, the axiom that only one-tenth, nevermore than one-eighth, of our mental activity occurs above the level ofconsciousness. Now let us imagine a hypothetical race whose entirementation is conscious. "

"I hope they stay hypothetical, " Victor Grego, in his office across thecity, said out of the screen. "They wouldn't recognize us as sapient atall. "

"We wouldn't be sapient, as they'd define the term, " Leslie Coombes, inthe same screen with Grego, said. "They'd have some equivalent of thetalk-and-build-a-fire rule, based on abilities of which we can't evenconceive. "

Maybe, Ruth thought, they might recognize us as one-tenth to as much asone-eighth sapient. No, then we'd have to recognize, say, a chimpanzee asbeing one-one-hundredth sapient, and a flatworm as being sapient to theorder of one-billionth. 

"Wait a minute, " she said. "If I understand, you mean that nonsapientbeings think, but only subconsciously?"

"That's correct, Ruth. When confronted by some entirely novel situation, anonsapient animal will think, but never consciously. Of course, familiarsituations are dealt with by pure habit and memory-response. "

"You know, I've just thought of something, " Grego said. "I think we canexplain that funeral that's been bothering all of us in nonsapient terms. "He lit a cigarette, while they all looked at him expectantly. "Fuzzies, "he continued, "bury their ordure: they do this to avoid an unpleasantsense-stimulus, a bad smell. Dead bodies quickly putrefy and smell badly;they are thus equated, subconsciously, with ordure and must be buried. AllFuzzies carry weapons. A Fuzzy's weapon is--still subconsciously--regardedas a part of the Fuzzy, hence it must also be buried. "

Mallin frowned portentously. The idea seemed to appeal to him, but ofcourse he simply couldn't agree too promptly with a mere layman, even theboss. 

"Well, so far you're on fairly safe ground, Mr. Grego, " he admitted. "Association of otherwise dissimilar things because of some apparentsimilarity is a recognized element of nonsapient animal behavior. " Hefrowned again. "That _could_ be an explanation. I'll have to think of it. "

About this time tomorrow, it would be his own idea, with grudgingrecognition of a suggestion by Victor Grego. In time, that would beforgotten; it would be the Mallin Theory. Grego was apparently agreeable, as long as the job got done. 

"Well, if you can make anything out of it, pass it on to Mr. Coombes assoon as possible, to be worked up for use in court, " he said. 

XII

Ben Rainsford went back to Beta Continent, and Gerd van Riebeek remainedin Mallorysport. The constabulary at Post Fifteen had made steelchopper-diggers for their Fuzzies, and reported a gratifying abatement ofthe land-prawn nuisance. They also made a set of scaled-down carpentertools, and their Fuzzies were building themselves a house out of scrapcrates and boxes. A pair of Fuzzies showed up at Ben Rainsford's camp, andhe adopted them, naming them Flora and Fauna. 

Everybody had Fuzzies now, and Pappy Jack only had Baby. He was lying onthe floor of the parlor, teaching Baby to tie knots in a piece of string. Gus Brannhard, who spent most of the day in the office in the CentralCourts building which had been furnished to him as special prosecutor, waslolling in an armchair in red-and-blue pajamas, smoking a cigar, drinkingcoffee--his whisky consumption was down to a couple of drinks a day--andstudying texts on two reading screens at once, making an occasional remarkinto a stenomemophone. Gerd was at the desk, spoiling notepaper in aneffort to work something out by symbolic logic. Suddenly he crumpled asheet and threw it across the room, cursing. Brannhard looked away fromhis screens. 

"Trouble, Gerd?"

Gerd cursed again. "How the devil can I tell whether Fuzzies generalize?"he demanded. "How can I tell whether they form abstract ideas? How can Iprove, even, that they have ideas at all? Hell's blazes, how can I evenprove, to your satisfaction, that I think consciously?"

"Working on that idea I mentioned?" Brannhard asked. 

"I was. It seemed like a good idea but. .. . "

"Suppose we go back to specific instances of Fuzzy behavior, and presentthem as evidence of sapience?" Brannhard asked. "That funeral, forinstance. "

"They'll still insist that we define sapience. "

The communication screen began buzzing. Baby Fuzzy looked updisinterestedly, and then went back to trying to untie a figure-eight knothe had tied. Jack shoved himself to his feet and put the screen on. It wasMax Fane, and for the first time that he could remember, the ColonialMarshal was excited. 

"Jack, have you had any news on the screen lately?"

"No. Something turn up?"

"God, yes! The cops are all over the city hunting the Fuzzies; they haveorders to shoot on sight. Nick Emmert was just on the air with a rewardoffer--five hundred sols apiece, dead or alive. "

It took a few seconds for that to register. Then he became frightened. Gusand Gerd were both on their feet and crowding to the screen behind him. 

"They have some bum from that squatters' camp over on the East Side whoclaims the Fuzzies beat up his ten-year-old daughter, " Fane was saying. "They have both of them at police headquarters, and they've handed thestory out to Zarathustra News, and Planetwide Coverage. Of course, they'reCompany-controlled; they're playing it for all it's worth. "

"Have they been veridicated?" Brannhard demanded. 

"No, and the city cops are keeping them under cover. The girl says she wasplaying outdoors and these Fuzzies jumped her and began beating her withsticks. Her injuries are listed as multiple bruises, fractured wrist andgeneral shock. "

"I don't believe it! They wouldn't attack a child. "

"I want to talk to that girl and her father, " Brannhard was saying. "AndI'm going to demand that they make their statements under veridication. This thing's a frameup, Max; I'd bet my ears on it. Timing's just right;only a week till the trial. "

Maybe the Fuzzies had wanted the child to play with them, and she'd gottenfrightened and hurt one of them. A ten-year-old human child would lookdangerously large to a Fuzzy, and if they thought they were menaced theywould fight back savagely. 

They were still alive and in the city. That was one thing. But they werein worse danger than they had ever been; that was another. Fane was askingBrannhard how soon he could be dressed. 

"Five minutes? Good, I'll be along to pick you up, " he said. "Be seeingyou. "

Jack hurried into the bedroom he and Brannhard shared; he kicked off hismoccasins and began pulling on his boots. Brannhard, pulling his trousersup over his pajama pants, wanted to know where he thought he was going. 

"With you. I've got to find them before some dumb son of a Khooghra shootsthem. "

"You stay here, " Gus ordered. "Stay by the communication screen, and keepthe viewscreen on for news. But don't stop putting your boots on; you mayhave to get out of here fast if I call you and tell you they've beenlocated. I'll call you as soon as I get anything definite. "

Gerd had the screen on for news, and was getting Planetwide, openly ownedand operated by the Company. The newscaster was wrought up about thebrutal attack on the innocent child, but he was having trouble focusingthe blame. After all, who'd let the Fuzzies escape in the first place? Andeven a skilled semanticist had trouble in making anything called a Fuzzysound menacing. At least he gave particulars, true or not. 

The child, Lolita Lurkin, had been playing outside her home at abouttwenty-one hundred when she had suddenly been set upon by six Fuzzies, armed with clubs. Without provocation, they had dragged her down andbeaten her severely. Her screams had brought her father, and he had driventhe Fuzzies away. Police had brought both the girl and her father, OscarLurkin, to headquarters, where they had told their story. City police, Company police and constabulary troopers and parties of armed citizenswere combing the eastern side of the city; Resident General Emmert hadacted at once to offer a reward of five thousand sols apiece. .. . 

"The kid's lying, and if they ever get a veridicator on her, they'll proveit", he said. "Emmert, or Grego, or the two of them together, bribed thosepeople to tell that story. "

"Oh, I take that for granted, " Gerd said. "I know that place. Junktown. Ruth does a lot of work there for juvenile court. " He stopped briefly, pain in his eyes, and then continued: "You can hire anybody to do anythingover there for a hundred sols, especially if the cops are fixed inadvance. "

He shifted to the Interworld News frequency; they were covering the Fuzzyhunt from an aircar. The shanties and parked airjalopies of Junktown werefloodlighted from above; lines of men were beating the brush and pokingamong them. Once a car passed directly below the pickup, a man staring atthe ground from it over a machine gun. 

"Wooo! Am I glad I'm not in that mess!" Gerd exclaimed. "Anybody seessomething he thinks is a Fuzzy and half that gang'll massacre each otherin ten seconds. "

"I hope they do!"

Interworld News was pro-Fuzzy; the commentator in the car was beingextremely sarcastic about the whole thing. Into the middle of one view ofa rifle-bristling line of beaters somebody in the studio cut a view of theFuzzies, taken at the camp, looking up appealingly while waiting forbreakfast. "These, " a voice said, "are the terrible monsters against whomall these brave men are protecting us. "

A few moments later, a rifle flash and a bang, and then a fusilladebrought Jack's heart into his throat. The pickup car jetted toward it; bythe time it reached the spot, the shooting had stopped, and a crowd wasgathering around something white on the ground. He had to force himself tolook, then gave a shuddering breath of relief. It was a zaragoat, athree-horned domesticated ungulate. 

"Oh-Oh! Some squatter's milk supply finished. " The commentator laughed. "Not the first one tonight either. Attorney General--former ChiefProsecutor--O'Brien's going to have quite a few suits against theadministration to defend as a result of this business. "

"He's going to have a goddamn thundering big one from Jack Holloway!"

The communication screen buzzed; Gerd snapped it on. 

"I just talked to Judge Pendarvis, " Gus Brannhard reported out of it. "He's issuing an order restraining Emmert from paying any reward exceptfor Fuzzies turned over alive and uninjured to Marshal Fane. And he'sissuing a warning that until the status of the Fuzzies is determined, anybody killing one will face charges of murder. "

"That's fine, Gus! Have you seen the girl or her father yet?"

Brannhard snarled angrily. "The girl's in the Company hospital, in aprivate room. The doctors won't let anybody see her. I think Emmert'shiding the father in the Residency. And I haven't seen the two cops whobrought them in, or the desk sergeant who booked the complaint, or thedetective lieutenant who was on duty here. They've all lammed out. Max hasa couple of men over in Junktown, trying to find out who called the copsin the first place. We may get something out of that. "

The Chief Justice's action was announced a few minutes later; it got tothe hunters a few minutes after that and the Fuzzy hunt began fallingapart. The City and Company police dropped out immediately. Most of thecivilians, hoping to grab five thousand sols' worth of live Fuzzy, stayedon for twenty minutes, and so, apparently to control them, did theconstabulary. Then the reward was cancelled, the airborne floodlights wentoff and the whole thing broke up. 

Gus Brannhard came in shortly afterward, starting to undress as soon as heheeled the door shut after him. When he had his jacket and neckcloth off, he dropped into a chair, filled a water tumbler with whisky, gulped halfof it and then began pulling off his boots. 

"If that drink has a kid sister, I'll take it, " Gerd muttered. "Whathappened, Gus?"

Brannhard began to curse. "The whole thing's a fake; it stinks from hereto Nifflheim. It would stink _on_ Nifflheim. " He picked up a cigar butt hehad laid aside when Fane's call had come in and relighted it. "We foundthe woman who called the police. Neighbor; she says she saw Lurkin comehome drunk, and a little later she heard the girl screaming. She says hebeats her up every time he gets drunk, which is about five times a week, and she'd made up her mind to stop it the next chance she got. She deniedhaving seen anything that even looked like a Fuzzy anywhere around. "

The excitement of the night before had incubated a new brood of Fuzzyreports; Jack went to the marshal's office to interview the people makingthem. The first dozen were of a piece with the ones that had come inoriginally. Then he talked to a young man who had something of differentquality. 

"I saw them as plain as I'm seeing you, not more than fifty feet away, " hesaid. "I had an autocarbine, and I pulled up on them, but gosh, I couldn'tshoot them. They were just like little people, Mr. Holloway, and theylooked so scared and helpless. So I held over their heads and let off atwo-second burst to scare them away before anybody else saw them and shotthem. "

"Well, son, I'd like to shake your hand for that. You know, you thoughtyou were throwing away a lot of money there. How many did you see?"

"Well, only four. I'd heard that there were six, but the other two couldhave been back in the brush where I didn't see them. "

He pointed out on the map where it had happened. There were three otherpeople who had actually seen Fuzzies; none were sure how many, but theywere all positive about locations and times. Plotting the reports on themap, it was apparent that the Fuzzies were moving north and west acrossthe outskirts of the city. 

Brannhard showed up for lunch at the hotel, still swearing, but halfamusedly. 

"They've exhumed Ham O'Brien, and they've put him to work harassing us, "he said. "Whole flock of civil suits and dangerous-nuisance complaints andthat sort of thing; idea's to keep me amused with them while LeslieCoombes is working up his case for the trial. Even tried to get themanager here to evict Baby; I threatened him with a racial-discriminationsuit, and that stopped that. And I just filed suit against the Company forseven million sols on behalf of the Fuzzies--million apiece for them and amillion for their lawyer. "

"This evening, " Jack said, "I'm going out in a car with a couple of Max'sdeputies. We're going to take Baby, and we'll have a loud-speaker on thecar. " He unfolded the city map. "They seem to be traveling this way; theyought to be about here, and with Baby at the speaker, we ought to attracttheir attention. "

They didn't see anything, though they kept at it till dusk. Baby had awonderful time with the loud-speaker; when he yeeked into it, he producedan ear-splitting noise, until the three humans in the car flinched everytime he opened his mouth. It affected dogs too; as the car moved back andforth, it was followed by a chorus of howling and baying on the ground. 

The next day, there were some scattered reports, mostly of small thefts. Ablanket spread on the grass behind a house had vanished. A couple ofcushions had been taken from a porch couch. A frenzied mother reportedhaving found her six-year-old son playing with some Fuzzies; when she hadrushed to rescue him, the Fuzzies had scampered away and the child hadbegun weeping. Jack and Gerd rushed to the scene. The child's story, jumbled and imagination-colored, was definite on one point--the Fuzzieshad been nice to him and hadn't hurt him. They got a recording of that onthe air at once. 

When they got back to the hotel, Gus Brannhard was there, bubbling withglee. 

"The Chief Justice gave me another job of special prosecuting, " he said. "I'm to conduct an investigation into the possibility that this thing, theother night, was a frame-up, and I'm to prepare complaints against anybodywho's done anything prosecutable. I have authority to hold hearings, andsubpoena witnesses, and interrogate them under veridication. Max Fane hasspecific orders to cooperate. We're going to start, tomorrow, with Chiefof Police Dumont and work down. And maybe we can work up, too, as far asNick Emmert and Victor Grego. " He gave a rumbling laugh. "Maybe that'llgive Leslie Coombes something to worry about. "

 * * * * *

Gerd brought the car down beside the rectangular excavation. It was fiftyfeet square and twenty feet deep, and still going deeper, with a powershovel in it and a couple of dump scows beside. Five or six men incoveralls and ankle boots advanced to meet them as they got out. 

"Good morning, Mr. Holloway, " one of them said. "It's right down over theedge of the hill. We haven't disturbed anything. "

"Mind running over what you saw again? My partner here wasn't in when youcalled. "

The foreman turned to Gerd. "We put off a couple of shots about an hourago. Some of the men, who'd gone down over the edge of the hill, saw theseFuzzies run out from under that rock ledge down there, and up the hollow, that way. " He pointed. "They called me, and I went down for a look, andsaw where they'd been camping. The rock's pretty hard here, and we usedpretty heavy charges. Shock waves in the ground was what scared them. "

They started down a path through the flower-dappled tall grass toward theedge of the hill, and down past the gray outcropping of limestone thatformed a miniature bluff twenty feet high and a hundred in length. Underan overhanging ledge, they found two cushions, a red-and-gray blanket, andsome odds and ends of old garments that looked as though they had oncebeen used for polishing rags. There was a broken kitchen spoon, and a coldchisel, and some other metal articles. 

"That's it, all right. I talked to the people who lost the blanket and thecushions. They must have made camp last night, after your gang stoppedwork; the blasting chased them out. You say you saw them go up that way?"he asked, pointing up the little stream that came down from the mountainsto the north. 

The stream was deep and rapid, too much so for easy fording by Fuzzies;they'd follow it back into the foothills. He took everybody's names andthanked them. If he found the Fuzzies himself and had to pay off on aninformation-received basis, it would take a mathematical genius to decidehow much reward to pay whom. 

"Gerd, if you were a Fuzzy, where would you go up there?" he asked. 

Gerd looked up the stream that came rushing down from among the woodedfoothills. 

"There are a couple more houses farther up, " he said. "I'd get above them. Then I'd go up one of those side ravines, and get up among the rocks, where the damnthings couldn't get me. Of course, there are no damnthingsthis close to town, but they wouldn't know that. "

"We'll need a few more cars. I'll call Colonel Ferguson and see what hecan do for me. Max is going to have his hands full with this investigationGus started. "

 * * * * *

Piet Dumont, the Mallorysport chief of police, might have been a good coponce, but for as long as Gus Brannhard had known him, he had been what hewas now--an empty shell of unsupported arrogance, with a sagging waistlineand a puffy face that tried to look tough and only succeeded in lookingunpleasant. He was sitting in a seat that looked like an old fashionedelectric chair, or like one of those instruments of torture to whichbeauty-shop customers submit themselves. There was a bright conical helmeton his head, and electrodes had been clamped to various portions of hisanatomy. On the wall behind him was a circular screen which ought to havebeen a calm turquoise blue, but which was flickering from dark bluethrough violet to mauve. That was simple nervous tension and guilt andanger at the humiliation of being subjected to veridicated interrogation. Now and then there would be a stabbing flicker of bright red as he toyedmentally with some deliberate misstatement of fact. 

"You know, yourself, that the Fuzzies didn't hurt that girl, " Brannhardtold him. 

"I don't know anything of the kind, " the police chief retorted. "All Iknow's what was reported to me. "

That had started out a bright red; gradually it faded into purple. Evidently Piet Dumont was adopting a rules-of-evidence definition oftruth. 

"Who told you about it?"

"Luther Woller. Detective lieutenant on duty at the time. "

The veridicator agreed that that was the truth and not much of anythingbut the truth. 

"But you know that what really happened was that Lurkin beat the girlhimself, and Woller persuaded them both to say the Fuzzies did it, " MaxFane said. 

"I don't know anything of the kind!" Dumont almost yelled. The screenblazed red. "All I know's what they told me; nobody said anything else. "Red and blue, juggling in a typical quibbling pattern. "As far as I know, it was the Fuzzies done it. "

"Now, Piet, " Fane told him patiently. "You've used this same veridicatorhere often enough to know you can't get away with lying on it. Woller'smaking you the patsy for this, and you know that, too. Isn't it true, now, that to the best of your knowledge and belief those Fuzzies never touchedthat girl, and it wasn't till Woller talked to Lurkin and his daughter atheadquarters that anybody even mentioned Fuzzies?"

The screen darkened to midnight blue, and then, slowly, it lightened. 

"Yeah, that's true, " Dumont admitted. He avoided their eyes, and his voicewas surly. "I thought that was how it was, and I asked Woller. He justlaughed at me and told me to forget it. " The screen seethed momentarilywith anger. "That son of a Khooghra thinks he's chief, not me. One wordfrom me and he does just what he damn pleases!"

"Now you're being smart, Piet, " Fane said. "Let's start all over. .. . "

 * * * * *

A constabulary corporal was at the controls of the car Jack had rentedfrom the hotel: Gerd had taken his place in one of the two constabularycars. The third car shuttled between them, and all three talked back andforth by radio. 

"Mr. Holloway. " It was the trooper in the car Gerd had been piloting. "Your partner's down on the ground; he just called me with his portable. He's found a cracked prawn-shell. "

"Keep talking; give me direction, " the corporal at the controls said, lifting up. 

In a moment, they sighted the other car, hovering over a narrow ravine onthe left bank of the stream. The third car was coming in from the north. Gerd was still squatting on the ground when they let down beside him. Helooked up as they jumped out. 

"This is it, Jack" he said. "Regular Fuzzy job. "

So it was. Whatever they had used, it hadn't been anything sharp; the headwas smashed instead of being cleanly severed. The shell, however, had beenbroken from underneath in the standard manner, and all four mandibles hadbeen broken off for picks. They must have all eaten at the prawn, sharealike. It had been done quite recently. 

They sent the car up, and while all three of them circled about, they wentup the ravine on foot, calling: "Little Fuzzy! Little Fuzzy!" They found afootprint, and then another, where seepage water had moistened the ground. Gerd was talking excitedly into the portable radio he carried slung on hischest. 

"One of you, go ahead a quarter of a mile, and then circle back. They'rein here somewhere. "

"I see them! I see them!" a voice whooped out of the radio. "They're goingup the slope on your right, among the rocks!"

"Keep them in sight; somebody come and pick us up, and we'll get abovethem and head them off. "

The rental car dropped quickly, the corporal getting the door open. Hedidn't bother going off contragravity; as soon as they were in and hadpulled the door shut behind them, he was lifting again. For a moment, thehill swung giddily as the car turned, and then Jack saw them, climbing thesteep slope among the rocks. Only four of them, and one was helpinganother. He wondered which ones they were, what had happened to the othertwo and if the one that needed help had been badly hurt. 

The car landed on the top, among the rocks, settling at an awkward angle. He, Gerd and the pilot piled out and started climbing and sliding down thedeclivity. Then he found himself within reach of a Fuzzy and grabbed. Twomore dashed past him, up the steep hill. The one he snatched at hadsomething in his hand, and aimed a vicious blow at his face with it; hehad barely time to block it with his forearm. Then he was clutching theFuzzy and disarming him; the weapon was a quarter-pound ballpeen hammer. He put it in his hip pocket and then picked up the struggling Fuzzy withboth hands. 

"You hit Pappy Jack!" he said reproachfully. "Don't you know Pappy anymore? Poor scared little thing!"

The Fuzzy in his arms yeeked angrily. Then he looked, and it was no Fuzzyhe had ever seen before--not Little Fuzzy, nor funny, pompous Ko-Ko, normischievous Mike. It was a stranger Fuzzy. 

"Well, no wonder; of course you didn't know Pappy Jack. You aren't one ofPappy Jack's Fuzzies at all!"

At the top, the constabulary corporal was sitting on a rock, clutching twoFuzzies, one under each arm. They stopped struggling and yeeked piteouslywhen they saw their companion also a captive. 

"Your partner's down below, chasing the other one, " the corporal said. "You better take these too; you know them and I don't. "

"Hang onto them; they don't know me any better than they do you. "

With one hand, he got a bit of Extee Three out of his coat and offered it;the Fuzzy gave a cry of surprised pleasure, snatched it and gobbled it. Hemust have eaten it before. When he gave some to the corporal, the othertwo, a male and a female, also seemed familiar with it. From below, Gerdwas calling:

"I got one, It's a girl Fuzzy; I don't know if it's Mitzi or Cinderella. And, my God, wait till you see what she was carrying. "

Gerd came into sight, the fourth Fuzzy struggling under one arm and alittle kitten, black with a white face, peeping over the crook of hisother elbow. He was too stunned with disappointment to look at it withmore than vague curiosity. 

"They aren't our Fuzzies, Gerd. I never saw any of them before. "

"Jack, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" He was indignant. "Don't you think I know my ownFuzzies? Don't you think they'd know me?"

"Where'd the pussy come from?" the corporal wanted to know. 

"God knows. They must have picked it up somewhere. She was carrying it inher arms, like a baby. "

"They're somebody's Fuzzies. They've been fed Extee Three. We'll take themto the hotel. Whoever it is, I'll bet he misses them as much as I domine. "

His own Fuzzies, whom he would never see again. The full realizationdidn't hit him until he and Gerd were in the car again. There had been notrace of his Fuzzies from the time they had broken out of their cages atScience Center. This quartet had appeared the night the city police hadmanufactured the story of the attack on the Lurkin girl, and from themoment they had been seen by the youth who couldn't bring himself to fireon them, they had left a trail that he had been able to pick up at onceand follow. Why hadn't his own Fuzzies attracted as much notice in thethree weeks since they had vanished?

Because his own Fuzzies didn't exist any more. They had never gotten outof Science Center alive. Somebody Max Fane hadn't been able to questionunder veridication had murdered them. There was no use, any more, tryingto convince himself differently. 

"We'll stop at their camp and pick up the blanket and the cushions and therest of the things. I'll send the people who lost them checks, " he said. "The Fuzzies ought to have those things. "

XIII

The management of the Hotel Mallory appeared to have undergone a change ofheart, or of policy, toward Fuzzies. It might have been Gus Brannhard'sthreats of action for racial discrimination and the possibility that theFuzzies might turn out to be a race instead of an animal species afterall. The manager might have been shamed by the way the Lurkin story hadcrumbled into discredit, and influenced by the revived public sympathy forthe Fuzzies. Or maybe he just decided that the chartered ZarathustraCompany wasn't as omnipotent as he'd believed. At any rate, a large room, usually used for banquets, was made available for the Fuzzies George Luntand Ben Rainsford were bringing in for the trial, and the four strangersand their black-and-white kitten were installed there. There were a lot oftoys of different sorts, courtesy of the management, and a big viewscreen. The four strange Fuzzies dashed for this immediately and turned iton, yeeking in delight as they watched landing craft coming down andlifting out at the municipal spaceport. They found it very interesting. Itonly bored the kitten. 

With some misgivings, Jack brought Baby down and introduced him. They weredelighted with Baby, and Baby thought the kitten was the most wonderfulthing he had ever seen. When it was time to feed them, Jack had his owndinner brought in, and ate with them. Gus and Gerd came down and joinedhim later. 

"We got the Lurkin kid and her father, " Gus said, and then falsettoed:"'Naw, Pop gimme a beatin', and the cops told me to say it was theFuzzies. '"

"She say that?"

"Under veridication, with the screen blue as a sapphire, in front of halfa dozen witnesses and with audiovisuals on. Interworld's putting it on theair this evening. Her father admitted it, too; named Woller and the desksergeant. We're still looking for them; till we get them, we aren't anycloser to Emmert or Grego. We did pick up the two car cops, but they don'tknow anything on anybody but Woller. "

That was good enough, as far as it went, Brannhard thought, but it didn'tgo far enough. There were those four strange Fuzzies showing up out ofnowhere, right in the middle of Nick Emmert's drive-hunt. They'd been keptsomewhere by somebody--that was how they'd learned to eat Extee Three andfound out about viewscreens. Their appearance was too well synchronized tobe accidental. The whole thing smelled to him of a booby trap. 

One good thing had happened. Judge Pendarvis had decided that it would benext to impossible, in view of the widespread public interest in the caseand the influence of the Zarathustra Company, to get an impartial jury, and had proposed a judicial trial by a panel of three judges, himself oneof them. Even Leslie Coombes had felt forced to agree to that. 

He told Jack about the decision. Jack listened with apparentattentiveness, and then said:

"You know, Gus, I'll always be glad I let Little Fuzzy smoke my pipe whenhe wanted to, that night out at camp. "

The way he was feeling, he wouldn't have cared less if the case was goingto be tried by a panel of three zaragoats. 

Ben Rainsford, his two Fuzzies, and George Lunt, Ahmed Khadra and theother constabulary witnesses and their family, arrived shortly before noonon Saturday. The Fuzzies were quartered in the stripped-out banquet room, and quickly made friends with the four already there, and with Baby. Eachfamily bedded down apart, but they ate together and played with eachothers' toys and sat in a clump to watch the viewscreen. At first, theFerny Creek family showed jealousy when too much attention was paid totheir kitten, until they decided that nobody was trying to steal it. 

It would have been a lot of fun, eleven Fuzzies and a Baby Fuzzy and ablack-and-white kitten, if Jack hadn't kept seeing his own family, sixquiet little ghosts watching but unable to join the frolicking. 

 * * * * *

Max Fane brightened when he saw who was on his screen. 

"Well, Colonel Ferguson, glad to see you. "

"Marshal, " Ferguson was smiling broadly. "You'll be even gladder in aminute. A couple of my men, from Post Eight, picked up Woller and thatdesk sergeant, Fuentes. "

"Ha!" He started feeling warm inside, as though he had just downed a slugof Baldur honey-rum. "How?"

"Well, you know Nick Emmert has a hunting lodge down there. Post Eightkeeps an eye on it for him. This afternoon, one of Lieutenant Obefemi'scars was passing over it, and they picked up some radiation and infraredon their detectors, as though the power was on inside. When they went downto investigate, they found Woller and Fuentes making themselves at home. They brought them in, and both of them admitted under veridication thatEmmert had given them the keys and sent them down there to hide out tillafter the trial. 

"They denied that Emmert had originated the frameup. That had been one ofWoller's own flashes of genius, but Emmert knew what the score was andwent right along with it. They're being brought up here the first thingtomorrow morning. "

"Well, that's swell, Colonel! Has it gotten out to the news services yet?"

"No. We would like to have them both questioned here in Mallorysport, andtheir confessions recorded, before we let the story out. Otherwise, somebody might try to take steps to shut them up for good. "

That had been what he had been thinking of. He said so, and Fergusonnodded. Then he hesitated for a moment, and said:

"Max, do you like the situation here in Mallorysport? Be damned if I do. "

"What do you mean?"

"There are too many strangers in town, " Ian Ferguson said. "All the samekind of strangers--husky-looking young men, twenty to thirty, going aroundin pairs and small groups. I've been noticing it since day before last, and there seem to be more of them every time I look around. "

"Well, Ian, it's a young man's planet, and we can expect a big crowd intown for the trial. .. . "

He didn't really believe that. He just wanted Ian Ferguson to put a nameon it first. Ferguson shook his head. 

"No, Max. This isn't a trial-day crowd. We both know what they're like;remember when they tried the Gawn brothers? No whooping it up in bars, noexcitement, no big crap games; this crowd's just walking around, keepingquiet, as though they expected a word from somebody. "

"Infiltration. " Goddamit, he'd said it first, himself after all! "VictorGrego's worried about this. "

"I know it, Max. And Victor Grego's like a veldbeest bull; he isn'tdangerous till he's scared, and then watch out. And against the gangthat's moving in here, the men you and I have together would last about aslong as a pint of trade-gin at a Sheshan funeral. "

"You thinking of pushing the panic-button?"

The constabulary commander frowned. "I don't want to. A dim view would betaken back on Terra if I did it without needing to. Dimmer view would betaken of needing to without doing it, though. I'll make another check, first. "

 * * * * *

Gerd van Riebeek sorted the papers on the desk into piles, lit a cigaretteand then started to mix himself a highball. 

"Fuzzies are members of a sapient race, " he declared. "They reasonlogically, both deductively and inductively. They learn by experiment, analysis and association. They formulate general principles, and applythem to specific instances. They plan their activities in advance. Theymake designed artifacts, and artifacts to make artifacts. They are able tosymbolize, and convey ideas in symbolic form, and form symbols byabstracting from objects. 

"They have aesthetic sense and creativity, " he continued. "They becomebored in idleness, and they enjoy solving problems for the pleasure ofsolving them. They bury their dead ceremoniously, and bury artifacts withthem. "

He blew a smoke ring, and then tasted his drink. "They do all thesethings, and they also do carpenter work, blow police whistles, make eatingtools to eat land-prawns with and put molecule-model balls together. Obviously they are sapient beings. But don't please don't ask me to definesapience, because God damn it to Nifflheim, I still can't!"

"I think you just did, " Jack said. 

"No, that won't do. I need a definition. "

"Don't worry, Gerd, " Gus Brannhard told him. "Leslie Coombes will bring anice shiny new definition into court. We'll just use that. "

XIV

They walked together, Frederic and Claudette Pendarvis, down through theroof garden toward the landing stage, and, as she always did, Claudettestopped and cut a flower and fastened it in his lapel. 

"Will the Fuzzies be in court?" she asked. 

"Oh, they'll have to be. I don't know about this morning; it'll be mostlyformalities. " He made a grimace that was half a frown and half a smile. "Ireally don't know whether to consider them as witnesses or as exhibits, and I hope I'm not called on to rule on that, at least at the start. Either way, Coombes or Brannhard would accuse me of showing prejudice. "

"I want to see them. I've seen them on screen, but I want to see them forreal. "

"You haven't been in one of my courts for a long time, Claudette. If Ifind that they'll be brought in today, I'll call you. I'll even abuse myposition to the extent of arranging for you to see them outside thecourtroom. Would you like that?"

She'd love it. Claudette had a limitless capacity for delight in thingslike that. They kissed good-bye, and he went to where his driver washolding open the door of the aircar and got in. At a thousand feet helooked back; she was still standing at the edge of the roof garden, looking up. 

He'd have to find out whether it would be safe for her to come in. MaxFane was worried about the possibility of trouble, and so was IanFerguson, and neither was given to timorous imaginings. As the car beganto descend toward the Central Courts buildings, he saw that there wereguards on the roof, and they weren't just carrying pistols--he caught theglint of rifle barrels, and the twinkle of steel helmets. Then, as he camein, he saw that their uniforms were a lighter shade of blue than theconstabulary wore. Ankle boots and red-striped trousers; Space Marines indress blues. So Ian Ferguson had pushed the button. It occurred to himthat Claudette might be safer here than at home. 

A sergeant and a couple of men came up as he got out; the sergeant touchedthe beak of his helmet in the nearest thing to a salute a Marine ever gaveanybody in civilian clothes. 

"Judge Pendarvis? Good morning, sir. "

"Good morning, sergeant. Just why are Federation Marines guarding thecourt building?"

"Standing by, sir. Orders of Commodore Napier. You'll find that MarshalFane's people are in charge below-decks, but Marine Captain Casagra andNavy Captain Greibenfeld are waiting to see you in your office. "

As he started toward the elevators, a big Zarathustra Company car wascoming in. The sergeant turned quickly, beckoned a couple of his men andwent toward it on the double. He wondered what Leslie Coombes would thinkabout those Marines. 

The two officers in his private chambers were both wearing sidearms. So, also, was Marshal Fane, who was with them. They all rose to greet him, sitting down when he was at his desk. He asked the same question he had ofthe sergeant above. 

"Well, Constabulary Colonel Ferguson called Commodore Napier last eveningand requested armed assistance, your Honor, " the officer in Space Navyblack said. "He suspected, he said, that the city had been infiltrated. Inthat, your Honor, he was perfectly correct; beginning Wednesday afternoon, Marine Captain Casagra, here, on Commodore Napier's orders, began landinga Marine infiltration force, preparatory to taking over the Residency. That's been accomplished now; Commodore Napier is there, and both ResidentGeneral Emmert and Attorney General O'Brien are under arrest, on a varietyof malfeasance and corrupt-practice charges, but that won't come into yourHonor's court. They'll be sent back to Terra for trial. "

"Then Commodore Napier's taken over the civil government?"

"Well, say he's assumed control of it, pending the outcome of this trial. We want to know whether the present administration's legal or not. "

"Then you won't interfere with the trial itself?"

"That depends, your Honor. We are certainly going to participate. " Helooked at his watch. "You won't convene court for another hour? Thenperhaps I'll have time to explain. "

 * * * * *

Max Fane met them at the courtroom door with a pleasant greeting. Then hesaw Baby Fuzzy on Jack's shoulder and looked dubious. 

"I don't know about him, Jack. I don't think he'll be allowed in thecourtroom. "

"Nonsense!" Gus Brannhard told him. "I admit, he is both a minor child andan incompetent aborigine, but he is the only surviving member of thefamily of the decedent Jane Doe alias Goldilocks, and as such has anindisputable right to be present. "

"Well, just as long as you keep him from sitting on people's heads. Gus, you and Jack sit over there; Ben, you and Gerd find seats in the witnesssection. "

It would be half an hour till court would convene, but already thespectators' seats were full, and so was the balcony. The jury box, on theleft of the bench, was occupied by a number of officers in Navy black andMarine blue. Since there would be no jury, they had apparentlyappropriated it for themselves. The press box was jammed and bristlingwith equipment. 

Baby was looking up interestedly at the big screen behind the judges'seats; while transmitting the court scene to the public, it also showed, like a nonreversing mirror, the same view to the spectators. Baby wasn'tlong in identifying himself in it, and waved his arms excitedly. At thatmoment, there was a bustle at the door by which they had entered, andLeslie Coombes came in, followed by Ernst Mallin and a couple of hisassistants, Ruth Ortheris, Juan Jimenez--and Leonard Kellogg. The lasttime he had seen Kellogg had been at George Lunt's complaint court, hisface bandaged and his feet in a pair of borrowed moccasins because hisshoes, stained with the blood of Goldilocks, had been impounded asevidence. 

Coombes glanced toward the table where he and Brannhard were sitting, caught sight of Baby waving to himself in the big screen and turned toFane with an indignant protest. Fane shook his head. Coombes protestedagain, and drew another headshake. Finally he shrugged and led Kellogg tothe table reserved for them, where they sat down. 

Once Pendarvis and his two associates--a short, roundfaced man on hisright, a tall, slender man with white hair and a black mustache on hisleft--were seated, the trial got underway briskly. The charges were read, and then Brannhard, as the Kellogg prosecutor, addressed the court--"beingknown as Goldilocks . .. Sapient member of a sapient race . .. Willful anddeliberate act of the said Leonard Kellogg . .. Brutal and unprovokedmurder. " He backed away, sat on the edge of the table and picked up BabyFuzzy, fondling him while Leslie Coombes accused Jack Holloway of brutallyassaulting the said Leonard Kellogg and ruthlessly shooting down KurtBorch. 

"Well, gentlemen, I believe we can now begin hearing the witnesses, " theChief Justice said. "Who will start prosecuting whom?"

Gus handed Baby to Jack and went forward: Coombes stepped up beside him. 

"Your Honor, this entire trial hinges upon the question of whether amember of the species _Fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra_ is or is not asapient being, " Gus said. "However, before any attempt is made todetermine this question, we should first establish, by testimony, justwhat happened at Holloway's Camp, in Cold Creek Valley, on the afternoonof June 19, Atomic Era Six Fifty-Four, and once this is established, wecan then proceed to the question of whether or not the said Goldilocks wastruly a sapient being. "

"I agree, " Coombes said equably. "Most of these witnesses will have to berecalled to the stand later, but in general I think Mr. Brannhard'ssuggestion will be economical of the court's time. "

"Will Mr. Coombes agree to stipulate that any evidence tending to prove ordisprove the sapience of Fuzzies in general be accepted as proving ordisproving the sapience of the being referred to as Goldilocks?"

Coombes looked that over carefully, decided that it wasn't booby-trappedand agreed. A deputy marshal went over to the witness stand, made someadjustments and snapped on a switch at the back of the chair. Immediatelythe two-foot globe in a standard behind it lit, a clear blue. GeorgeLunt's name was called; the lieutenant took his seat and the bright helmetwas let down over his head and the electrodes attached. 

The globe stayed a calm, untroubled blue while he stated his name andrank. Then he waited while Coombes and Brannhard conferred. FinallyBrannhard took a silver half-sol piece from his pocket, shook it betweencupped palms and slapped it onto his wrist. Coombes said, "Heads, " andBrannhard uncovered it, bowed slightly and stepped back. 

"Now, Lieutenant Lunt, " Coombes began, "when you arrived at the temporarycamp across the run from Holloway's camp, what did you find there?"

"Two dead people, " Lunt said. "A Terran human, who had been shot threetimes through the chest, and a Fuzzy, who had been kicked or trampled todeath. "

"Your Honors!" Coombes expostulated, "I must ask that the witness berequested to rephrase his answer, and that the answer he has just made bestricken from the record. The witness, under the circumstances, has noright to refer to the Fuzzies as 'people. '"

"Your Honors, " Brannhard caught it up, "Mr. Coombes's objection is no lessprejudicial. He has no right, under the circumstances, to deny that theFuzzies be referred to as 'people. ' This is tantamount to insisting thatthe witness speak of them as nonsapient animals. "

It went on like that for five minutes. Jack began doodling on a notepad. Baby picked up a pencil with both hands and began making doodles too. Theylooked rather like the knots he had been learning to tie. Finally, thecourt intervened and told Lunt to tell, in his own words, why he went toHolloway's camp, what he found there, what he was told and what he did. There was some argument between Coombes and Brannhard, at one point, aboutthe difference between hearsay and _res gestae_. When he was through, Coombes said, "No questions. "

"Lieutenant, you placed Leonard Kellogg under arrest on a complaint ofhomicide by Jack Holloway. I take it that you considered this complaint avalid one?"

"Yes, sir. I believed that Leonard Kellogg had killed a sapient being. Only sapient beings bury their dead. "

Ahmed Khadra testified. The two troopers who had come in the other car, and the men who had brought the investigative equipment and done thephotographing at the scene testified. Brannhard called Ruth Ortheris tothe stand, and, after some futile objections by Coombes, she was allowedto tell her own story of the killing of Goldilocks, the beating of Kelloggand the shooting of Borch. When she had finished, the Chief Justice rappedwith his gavel. 

"I believe that this testimony is sufficient to establish the fact thatthe being referred to as Jane Doe alias Goldilocks was in fact kicked andtrampled to death by the defendant Leonard Kellogg, and that the Terranhuman known as Kurt Borch was in fact shot to death by Jack Holloway. Thisbeing the case, we may now consider whether or not either or both of thesekillings constitute murder within the meaning of the law. It is now elevenforty. We will adjourn for lunch, and court will reconvene at fourteenhundred. There are a number of things, including some alterations to thecourtroom, which must be done before the afternoon session. .. . Yes, Mr. Brannhard?"

"Your Honors, there is only one member of the species _Fuzzy fuzzyholloway zarathustra_ at present in court, an immature and hencenonrepresentative individual. " He picked up Baby and exhibited him. "If weare to take up the question of the sapience of this species, or race, would it not be well to send for the Fuzzies now staying at the HotelMallory and have them on hand?"

"Well, Mr. Brannhard, " Pendarvis said, "we will certainly want Fuzzies incourt, but let me suggest that we wait until after court reconvenes beforesending for them. It may be that they will not be needed this afternoon. Anything else?" He tapped with his gavel. "Then court is adjourned untilfourteen hundred. "

 * * * * *

Some alterations in the courtroom had been a conservative way of puttingit. Four rows of spectators' seats had been abolished, and the dividingrail moved back. The witness chair, originally at the side of the bench, had been moved to the dividing rail and now faced the bench, and a largenumber of tables had been brought in and ranged in an arc with the witnesschair in the middle of it. Everybody at the tables could face the judges, and also see everybody else by looking into the big screen. A witness onthe chair could also see the veridicator in the same way. 

Gus Brannhard looked around, when he entered with Jack, and swore softly. 

"No wonder they gave us two hours for lunch. I wonder what the idea is. "Then he gave a short laugh. "Look at Coombes; he doesn't like it a bit. "

A deputy with a seating diagram came up to them. 

"Mr. Brannhard, you and Mr. Holloway over here, at this table. " He pointedto one a little apart from the others, at the extreme right facing thebench. "And Dr. Van Riebeek, and Dr. Rainsford over here, please. "

The court crier's loud-speaker, overhead, gave two sharp whistles andbegan:

"Now hear this! Now hear this! Court will convene in five minutes--"

Brannhard's head jerked around instantly, and Jack's eyes followed his. The court crier was a Space Navy petty officer. 

"What the devil is this?" Brannhard demanded. "A Navy court-martial?"

"That's what I've been wondering, Mr. Brannhard, " the deputy said. "They've taken over the whole planet, you know. "

"Maybe we're in luck, Gus. I've always heard that if you're innocentyou're better off before a court-martial and if you're guilty you'rebetter off in a civil court. "

He saw Leslie Coombes and Leonard Kellogg being seated at a similar tableat the opposite side of the bench. Apparently Coombes had also heard that. The seating arrangements at the other tables seemed a little odd too. Gerdvan Riebeek was next to Ruth Ortheris, and Ernst Mallin was next to BenRainsford, with Juan Jimenez on his other side. Gus was looking up at thebalcony. 

"I'll bet every lawyer on the planet's taking this in, " he said. "Oh-oh!See the white-haired lady in the blue dress, Jack? That's the ChiefJustice's wife. This is the first time she's been in court for years. "

"Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! Rise for the Honorable Court!"

Somebody must have given the petty officer a quick briefing on courtroomphraseology. He stood up, holding Baby Fuzzy, while the three judges filedin and took their seats. As soon as they sat down, the Chief Justicerapped briskly with his gavel. 

"In order to forestall a spate of objections, I want to say that thesepresent arrangements are temporary, and so will be the procedures whichwill be followed. We are not, at the moment, trying Jack Holloway orLeonard Kellogg. For the rest of this day, and, I fear, for a good manydays to come, we will be concerned exclusively with determining the levelof mentation of _Fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra_. 

"For this purpose, we are temporarily abandoning some of the traditionaltrial procedures. We will call witnesses; statements of purported factwill be made under veridication as usual. We will also have a generaldiscussion, in which all of you at these tables will be free toparticipate. I and my associates will preside; as we can't have everybodyshouting disputations at once, anyone wishing to speak will have to berecognized. At least, I hope we will be able to conduct the discussion inthis manner. 

"You will all have noticed the presence of a number of officers fromXerxes Naval Base, and I suppose you have all heard that Commodore Napierhas assumed control of the civil government. Captain Greibenfeld, will youplease rise and be seen? He is here participating as _amicus curiae_, andI have given him the right to question witnesses and to delegate thatright to any of his officers he may deem proper. Mr. Coombes and Mr. Brannhard may also delegate that right as they see fit. "

Coombes was on his feet at once. "Your Honors, if we are now to discussthe sapience question, I would suggest that the first item on our order ofbusiness be the presentation of some acceptable definition of sapience. Ishould, for my part, very much like to know what it is that the Kelloggprosecution and the Holloway defense mean when they use that term. "

That's it. They want us to define it. Gerd van Riebeek was lookingchagrined; Ernst Mallin was smirking. Gus Brannhard, however, was pleased. 

"Jack, they haven't any more damn definition than we do, " he whispered. 

Captain Greibenfeld, who had seated himself after rising at the request ofthe court, was on his feet again. 

"Your Honors, during the past month we at Xerxes Naval Base have beenworking on exactly that problem. We have a very considerable interest inhaving the classification of this planet established, and we also feelthat this may not be the last time a question of disputable sapience mayarise. I believe, your Honors, that we have approached such a definition. However, before we begin discussing it, I would like the court'spermission to present a demonstration which may be of help inunderstanding the problems involved. "

"Captain Greibenfeld has already discussed this demonstration with me, andit has my approval. Will you please proceed, Captain, " the Chief Justicesaid. 

Greibenfeld nodded, and a deputy marshal opened the door on the right ofthe bench. Two spacemen came in, carrying cartons. One went up to thebench; the other started around in front of the tables, distributing smallbattery-powered hearing aids. 

"Please put them in your ears and turn them on, " he said. "Thank you. "

Baby Fuzzy tried to get Jack's. He put the plug in his ear and switched onthe power. Instantly he began hearing a number of small sounds he hadnever heard before, and Baby was saying to him: "_He-inta sa-wa'aka; iggasa geeda?_"

"Muhgawd, Gus, he's talking!"

"Yes, I hear him; what do you suppose--?"

"Ultrasonic; God, why didn't we think of that long ago?"

He snapped off the hearing aid. Baby Fuzzy was saying, "Yeeek. " When heturned it on again, Baby was saying, "_Kukk-ina za zeeva. _"

"No, Baby, Pappy Jack doesn't understand. We'll have to be awfullypatient, and learn each other's language. "

"_Pa-pee Jaaak!_" Baby cried. "_Ba-bee za-hinga; Pa-pee Jaak za zag gahe-izza!_"

"That yeeking is just the audible edge of their speech; bet we have a lotof transsonic tones in our voices, too. "

"Well, he can hear what we say; he's picked up his name and yours. "

"Mr. Brannhard, Mr. Holloway, " Judge Pendarvis was saying, "may we pleasehave your attention? Now, have you all your earplugs in and turned on?Very well; carry on, Captain. "

This time, an ensign went out and came back with a crowd of enlisted men, who had six Fuzzies with them. They set them down in the open spacebetween the bench and the arc of tables and backed away. The Fuzzies drewtogether into a clump and stared around them, and he stared, unbelievingly, at them. They couldn't be; they didn't exist any more. Butthey were--Little Fuzzy and Mamma Fuzzy and Mike and Mitzi and Ko-Ko andCinderella. Baby whooped something and leaped from the table, and Mammacame stumbling to meet him, clasping him in her arms. Then they all sawhim and began clamoring: "_Pa-pee Jaaak! Pa-pee Jaaak!_"

He wasn't aware of rising and leaving the table; the next thing herealized, he was sitting on the floor, his family mobbing him and hugginghim, gabbling with joy. Dimly he heard the gavel hammering, and the voiceof Chief Justice Pendarvis: "Court is recessed for ten minutes!" By thattime, Gus was with him; gathering the family up, they carried them over totheir table. 

They stumbled and staggered when they moved, and that frightened him for amoment. Then he realized that they weren't sick or drugged. They'd justbeen in low-G for a while and hadn't become reaccustomed to normal weight. Now he knew why he hadn't been able to find any trace of them. He noticedthat each of them was wearing a little shoulder bag--a Marine Corpsfirst-aid pouch--slung from a webbing strap. Why the devil hadn't hethought of making them something like that? He touched one and commented, trying to pitch his voice as nearly like theirs as he could. They allbabbled in reply and began opening the little bags and showing him whatthey had in them--little knives and miniature tools and bits of bright orcolored junk they had picked up. Little Fuzzy produced a tiny pipe with ahardwood bowl, and a little pouch of tobacco from which he filled it. Finally, he got out a small lighter. 

"Your Honors!" Gus shouted, "I know court is recessed, but please observewhat Little Fuzzy is doing. "

While they watched, Little Fuzzy snapped the lighter and held the flame tothe pipe bowl, puffing. 

Across on the other side, Leslie Coombes swallowed once or twice andclosed his eyes. 

When Pendarvis rapped for attention and declared court reconvened, hesaid:

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have all seen and heard this demonstration ofCaptain Greibenfeld's. You have heard these Fuzzies uttering whatcertainly sounds like meaningful speech, and you have seen one of themlight a pipe and smoke. Incidentally, while smoking in court isdiscountenanced, we are going to make an exception, during this trial, infavor of Fuzzies. Other people will please not feel themselvesdiscriminated against. "

That brought Coombes to his feet with a rush. He started around the tableand then remembered that under the new rules he didn't have to. 

"Your Honors, I objected strongly to the use of that term by a witnessthis morning; I must object even more emphatically to its employment fromthe bench. I have indeed heard these Fuzzies make sounds which might bemistaken for words, but I must deny that this is true speech. As to thistrick of using a lighter, I will undertake, in not more than thirty days, to teach it to any Terran primate or Freyan kholph. "

Greibenfeld rose immediately. "Your Honors, in the past thirty days, whilethese Fuzzies were at Xerxes Naval Base, we have compiled a vocabulary ofa hundred-odd Fuzzy words, for all of which definite meanings have beenestablished, and a great many more for which we have not as yet learnedthe meanings. We even have the beginning of a Fuzzy grammar. As for thisso-called trick of using a lighter, Little Fuzzy--we didn't know his namethen and referred to him as M2--learned that for himself, by observation. We didn't teach him to smoke a pipe either; he knew that before we hadanything to do with him. "

Jack rose while Greibenfeld was still speaking. As soon as the Space Navycaptain had finished, he said:

"Captain Greibenfeld, I want to thank you and your people for taking careof the Fuzzies, and I'm very glad you learned how to hear what they'resaying, and thank you for all the nice things you gave them, but whycouldn't you have let me know they were safe? I haven't been very happythe last month, you know. "

"I know that, Mr. Holloway, and if it's any comfort to you, we were allvery sorry for you, but we could not take the risk of compromising oursecret intelligence agent in the Company's Science Center, the one whosmuggled the Fuzzies out the morning after their escape. " He lookedquickly across in front of the bench to the table at the other end of thearc. Kellogg was sitting with his face in his hands, oblivious toeverything that was going on, but Leslie Coombes's well-disciplined facehad broken, briefly, into a look of consternation. "By the time you andMr. Brannhard and Marshal Fane arrived with an order of the court for theFuzzies' recovery, they had already been taken from Science Center andwere on a Navy landing craft for Xerxes. We couldn't do anything withoutexposing our agent. That, I am glad to say, is no longer a consideration. "

"Well, Captain Greibenfeld, " the Chief Justice said, "I assume you mean tointroduce further testimony about the observations and studies made byyour people on Xerxes. For the record, we'd like to have it establishedthat they were actually taken there, and when, and how. "

"Yes, your Honor. If you will call the fourth name on the list I gave you, and allow me to do the questioning, we can establish that. "

The Chief Justice picked up a paper. "Lieutenant j. G. Ruth Ortheris, TFNReserve, " he called out. 

This time, Jack Holloway looked up into the big screen, in which he couldsee everybody. Gerd van Riebeek, who had been trying to ignore theexistence of the woman beside him, had turned to stare at her inamazement. Coombes's face was ghastly for an instant, then froze intocorpselike immobility: Ernst Mallin was dithering in incredulous anger;beside him Ben Rainsford was grinning in just as incredulous delight. AsRuth came around in front of the bench, the Fuzzies gave her an ovation;they remembered and liked her. Gus Brannhard was gripping his arm andsaying: "Oh, brother! This is it, Jack; it's all over but shooting thecripples!"

Lieutenant j. G. Ortheris, under a calmly blue globe, testified to comingto Zarathustra as a Federation Naval Reserve officer recalled to duty withIntelligence, and taking a position with the Company. 

"As a regularly qualified doctor of psychology, I worked under Dr. Mallinin the scientific division, and also with the school department and thejuvenile court. At the same time I was regularly transmitting reports toCommander Aelborg, the chief of Intelligence on Xerxes. The object of thissurveillance was to make sure that the Zarathustra Company was notviolating the provisions of their charter or Federation law. Until themiddle of last month, I had nothing to report beyond some rather irregularfinancial transactions involving Resident General Emmert. Then, on theevening of June fifteen--"

That was when Ben had transmitted the tape to Juan Jimenez; she describedhow it had come to her attention. 

"As soon as possible, I transmitted a copy of this tape to CommanderAelborg. The next night, I called Xerxes from the screen on Dr. VanRiebeek's boat and reported what I'd learned about the Fuzzies. I was theninformed that Leonard Kellogg had gotten hold of a copy of theHolloway-Rainsford tape and had alerted Victor Grego; that Kellogg andErnst Mallin were being sent to Beta Continent with instructions toprevent publication of any report claiming sapience for the Fuzzies and tofabricate evidence to support an accusation that Dr. Rainsford and Mr. Holloway were perpetrating a deliberate scientific hoax. "

"Here, I'll have to object to this, your Honor, " Coombes said, rising. "This is nothing but hearsay. "

"This is part of a Navy Intelligence situation estimate given toLieutenant Ortheris, based on reports we had received from other agents, "Captain Greibenfeld said. "She isn't the only one we have on Zarathustra, you know. Mr. Coombes, if I hear another word of objection to thisofficer's testimony from you, I am going to ask Mr. Brannhard to subpoenaVictor Grego and question him under veridication about it. "

"Mr. Brannhard will be more than happy to oblige, Commander, " Gus saidloudly and distinctly. 

Coombes sat down hastily. 

"Well, Lieutenant Ortheris, this is most interesting, but at the moment, what we're trying to establish is how these Fuzzies got to Xerxes NavalBase, " the chubby associate justice, Ruiz, put in. 

"I'll try to get them there as quickly as possible, your Honor, " she said. "On the night of Friday the twenty-second, the Fuzzies were taken from Mr. Holloway and brought into Mallorysport; they were turned over by MohammedO'Brien to Juan Jimenez, who took them to Science Center and put them incages in a room back of his office. They immediately escaped. I foundthem, the next morning, and was able to get them out of the building, andto turn them over to Commander Aelborg, who had come down from Xerxes totake personal charge of the Fuzzy operation. I will not testify as to howI was able to do this. I am at present and was then an officer of theTerran Federation Armed Forces; the courts have no power to compel aFederation officer to give testimony involving breach of militarysecurity. I was informed, through my contact in Mallorysport, from time totime, of the progress of the work of measuring the Fuzzies' mental levelthere; I was able to pass on suggestions occasionally. Any time any ofthese suggestions was based on ideas originating with Dr. Mallin, I wascareful to give him full credit. "

Mallin looked singularly unappreciative. 

Brannhard got up. "Before this witness is excused, I'd like to ask if sheknows anything about four other Fuzzies, the ones found by Jack Hollowayup Ferny Creek on Friday. "

"Why, yes; they're my Fuzzies, and I was worried about them. Their namesare Complex, Syndrome, Id and Superego. "

"Your Fuzzies, Lieutenant?"

"Well, I took care of them and worked with them; Juan Jimenez and someCompany hunters caught them over on Beta Continent. They were kept at afarm center about five hundred miles north of here, which had been vacatedfor the purpose. I spent all my time with them, and Dr. Mallin was withthem most of the time. Then, on Monday night, Mr. Coombes came and gotthem. "

"Mr. Coombes, did you say?" Gus Brannhard asked. 

"Mr. Leslie Coombes, the Company attorney. He said they were needed inMallorysport. It wasn't till the next day that I found out what they wereneeded for. They'd been turned loose in front of that Fuzzy hunt, in thehope that they would be killed. "

She looked across at Coombes; if looks were bullets, he'd have been deaderthan Kurt Borch. 

"Why would they sacrifice four Fuzzies merely to support a story that wasbound to come apart anyhow?" Brannhard asked. 

"That was no sacrifice. They had to get rid of those Fuzzies, and theywere afraid to kill them themselves for fear they'd be charged with murderalong with Leonard Kellogg. Everybody, from Ernst Mallin down, who hadanything to do with them was convinced of their sapience. For one thing, we'd been using those hearing aids ourselves; I suggested it, aftergetting the idea from Xerxes. Ask Dr. Mallin about it, under veridication. Ask him about the multiordinal polyencephalograph experiments, too. "

"Well, we have the Holloway Fuzzies placed on Xerxes, " the Chief Justicesaid. "We can hear the testimony of the people who worked with them thereat any time. Now, I want to hear from Dr. Ernst Mallin. "

Coombes was on his feet again. "Your Honors, before any further testimonyis heard, I would like to confer with my client privately. "

"I fail to see any reason why we should interrupt proceedings for thatpurpose, Mr. Coombes. You can confer as much as you wish with your clientafter this session, and I can assure you that you will be called upon todo nothing on his behalf until then. " He gave a light tap with his gaveland then said: "Dr. Ernst Mallin will please take the stand. "

XV

Ernst Mallin shrank, as though trying to pull himself into himself, whenhe heard his name. He didn't want to testify. He had been dreading thismoment for days. Now he would have to sit in that chair, and they wouldask him questions, and he couldn't answer them truthfully and the globeover his head--

When the deputy marshal touched his shoulder and spoke to him, he didn'tthink, at first, that his legs would support him. It seemed miles, withall the staring faces on either side of him. Somehow, he reached the chairand sat down, and they fitted the helmet over his head and attached theelectrodes. They used to make a witness take some kind of an oath to tellthe truth. They didn't any more. They didn't need to. 

As soon as the veridicator was on, he looked up at the big screen behindthe three judges; the globe above his head was a glaring red. There was atitter of laughter. Nobody in the Courtroom knew better than he what washappening. He had screens in his laboratory that broke it all down intoindividual patterns--the steady pulsing waves from the cortex, the alphaand beta waves; beta-aleph and beta-beth and beta-gimel and beta-daleth. The thalamic waves. He thought of all of them, and of the electromagneticevents which accompanied brain activity. As he did, the red faded and theglobe became blue. He was no longer suppressing statements andsubstituting other statements he knew to be false. If he could keep itthat way. But, sooner or later, he knew, he wouldn't be able to. 

The globe stayed blue while he named himself and stated his professionalbackground. There was a brief flicker of red while he was listing hispublication--that paper, entirely the work of one of his students, whichhe had published under his own name. He had forgotten about that, but hisconscience hadn't. 

"Dr. Mallin, " the oldest of the three judges, who sat in the middle, began, "what, in your professional opinion, is the difference betweensapient and nonsapient mentation?"

"The ability to think consciously, " he stated. The globe stayed blue. 

"Do you mean that nonsapient animals aren't conscious, or do you mean theydon't think?"

"Well, neither. Any life form with a central nervous system has someconsciousness--awareness of existence and of its surroundings. Andanything having a brain thinks, to use the term at its loosest. What Imeant was that only the sapient mind thinks and knows that it isthinking. "

He was perfectly safe so far. He talked about sensory stimuli andresponses, and about conditioned reflexes. He went back to the firstcentury Pre-Atomic, and Pavlov and Korzybski and Freud. The globe neverflickered. 

"The nonsapient animal is conscious only of what is immediately present tothe senses and responds automatically. It will perceive something and makea single statement about it--this is good to eat, this sensation isunpleasant, this is a sex-gratification object, this is dangerous. Thesapient mind, on the other hand, is conscious of thinking about thesesense stimuli, and makes descriptive statements about them, and then makesstatements about those statements, in a connected chain. I have astructural differential at my seat; if somebody will bring it to me--"

"Well, never mind now, Dr. Mallin. When you're off the stand and thediscussion begins you can show what you mean. We just want your opinion ingeneral terms, now. "

"Well, the sapient mind can generalize. To the nonsapient animal, everyexperience is either totally novel or identical with some rememberedexperience. A rabbit will flee from one dog because to the rabbit mind itis identical with another dog that has chased it. A bird will be attractedto an apple, and each apple will be a unique red thing to peck at. Thesapient being will say, 'These red objects are apples; as a class, theyare edible and flavorsome. ' He sets up a class under the general label ofapples. This, in turn, leads to the formation of abstract ideas--redness, flavor, et cetera--conceived of apart from any specific physical object, and to the ordering of abstractions--'fruit' as distinguished from apples, 'food' as distinguished from fruit. "

The globe was still placidly blue. The three judges waited, and hecontinued:

"Having formed these abstract ideas, it becomes necessary to symbolizethem, in order to deal with them apart from the actual object. The sapientbeing is a symbolizer, and a symbol communicator; he is able to convey toother sapient beings his ideas in symbolic form. "

"Like '_Pa-pee Jaak_'?" the judge on his right, with the black mustache, asked. 

The globe flashed red at once. 

"Your Honors, I cannot consider words picked up at random and learned byrote speech. The Fuzzies have merely learned to associate that sound witha specific human, and use it as a signal, not as a symbol. "

The globe was still red. The Chief Justice, in the middle, rapped with hisgavel. 

"Dr. Mallin! Of all the people on this planet, you at least should knowthe impossibility of lying under veridication. Other people just know itcan't be done; you know why. Now I'm going to rephrase Judge Janiver'squestion, and I'll expect you to answer truthfully. If you don't I'm goingto hold you in contempt. When those Fuzzies cried out, 'Pappy Jack!' doyou or do you not believe that they were using a verbal expression whichstood, in their minds, for Mr. Holloway?"

He couldn't say it. This sapience was all a big fake; he had to believethat. The Fuzzies were only little mindless animals. 

But he didn't believe it. He knew better. He gulped for a moment. 

"Yes, your Honor. The term 'Pappy Jack' is, in their minds, a symbolstanding for Mr. Jack Holloway. "

He looked at the globe. The red had turned to mauve, the mauve wasbecoming violet, and then clear blue. He felt better than he had feltsince the afternoon Leonard Kellogg had told him about the Fuzzies. 

"Then Fuzzies do think consciously, Dr. Mallin?" That was Pendarvis. 

"Oh, yes. The fact that they use verbal symbols indicates that, evenwithout other evidence. And the instrumental evidence was most impressive. The mentation pictures we got by encephalography compare very favorablywith those of any human child of ten or twelve years old, and so doestheir learning and puzzle-solving ability. On puzzles, they always thinkthe problem out first, and then do the mechanical work with about the samemental effort, say, as a man washing his hands or tying his neckcloth. "

The globe was perfectly blue. Mallin had given up trying to lie; he wassimply gushing out everything he thought. 

 * * * * *

Leonard Kellogg slumped forward, his head buried in his elbows on thetable, and misery washed over him in tides. 

_I am a murderer; I killed a person. Only a funny little person with fur, but she was a person, and I knew it when I killed her, I knew it when Isaw that little grave out in the woods, and they'll put me in that chairand make me admit it to everybody, and then they'll take me out in thejail yard and somebody will shoot me through the head with a pistol, and--_

_And all the poor little thing wanted was to show me her new jingle!_

 * * * * *

"Does anybody want to ask the witness any questions?" the Chief Justicewas asking. 

"I don't, " Captain Greibenfeld said. "Do you, Lieutenant?"

"No, I don't think so, " Lieutenant Ybarra said. "Dr. Mallin's given us avery lucid statement of his opinions. "

He had, at that, after he'd decided he couldn't beat the veridicator. Jackfound himself sympathizing with Mallin. He'd disliked the man from thefirst, but he looked different now--sort of cleaned and washed out inside. Maybe everybody ought to be veridicated, now and then, to teach them thathonesty begins with honesty to self. 

"Mr. Coombes?" Mr. Coombes looked as though he never wanted to ask anotherwitness another question as long as he lived. "Mr. Brannhard?"

Gus got up, holding a sapient member of a sapient race who was hangingonto his beard, and thanked Ernst Mallin fulsomely. 

"In that case, we'll adjourn until o-nine-hundred tomorrow. Mr. Coombes, Ihave here a check on the chartered Zarathustra Company for twenty-fivethousand sols. I am returning it to you and I am canceling Dr. Kellogg'sbail, " Judge Pendarvis said, as a couple of attendants began gettingMallin loose from the veridicator. 

"Are you also canceling Jack Holloway's?"

"No, and I would advise you not to make an issue of it, Mr. Coombes. Theonly reason I haven't dismissed the charge against Mr. Holloway is that Idon't want to handicap you by cutting off your foothold in theprosecution. I do not consider Mr. Holloway a bail risk. I do so consideryour client, Dr. Kellogg. "

"Frankly, your Honor, so do I, " Coombes admitted. "My protest was merelyan example of what Dr. Mallin would call conditioned reflex. "

Then a crowd began pushing up around the table; Ben Rainsford, George Luntand his troopers, Gerd and Ruth, shoving in among them, their arms aroundeach other. 

"We'll be at the hotel after a while, Jack, " Gerd was saying. "Ruth and Iare going out for a drink and something to eat; we'll be around later topick up her Fuzzies. "

Now his partner had his girl back, and his partner's girl had a Fuzzyfamily of her own. This was going to be real fun. What were their namesnow? Syndrome, Complex, Id and Superego. The things some people namedFuzzies!

XVI

They stopped whispering at the door, turned right, and ascended to thebench, bearing themselves like images in a procession, Ruiz first, thenhimself and then Janiver. They turned to the screen so that the publicwhom they served might see the faces of the judges, and then sat down. Thecourt crier began his chant. They could almost feel the tension in thecourtroom. Yves Janiver whispered to them:

"They all know about it. "

As soon as the crier had stopped, Max Fane approached the bench, his faceblankly expressionless. 

"Your Honors, I am ashamed to have to report that the defendant, LeonardKellogg, cannot be produced in court. He is dead; he committed suicide inhis cell last night. While in my custody, " he added bitterly. 

The stir that went through the courtroom was not shocked surprise, it wasa sigh of fulfilled expectation. They all knew about it. 

"How did this happen, Marshal?" he asked, almost conversationally. 

"The prisoner was put in a cell by himself; there was a pickup eye, andone of my deputies was keeping him under observation by screen. " Fanespoke in a toneless, almost robotlike voice. "At twenty-two thirty, theprisoner went to bed, still wearing his shirt. He pulled the blankets upover his head. The deputy observing him thought nothing of that; manyprisoners do that, on account of the light. He tossed about for a while, and then appeared to fall asleep. 

"When a guard went in to rouse him this morning, the cot, under theblanket, was found saturated with blood. Kellogg had cut his throat, bysawing the zipper track of his shirt back and forth till he severed hisjugular vein. He was dead. "

"Good heavens, Marshal!" He was shocked. The way he'd heard it, Kellogghad hidden a penknife, and he was prepared to be severe with Fane aboutit. But a thing like this! He found himself fingering the toothed track ofhis own jacket zipper. "I don't believe you can be at all censured for notanticipating a thing like that. It isn't a thing anybody would expect. "

Janiver and Ruiz spoke briefly in agreement. Marshal Fane bowed slightlyand went off to one side. 

Leslie Coombes, who seemed to be making a very considerable effort to lookgrieved and shocked, rose. 

"Your Honors, I find myself here without a client, " he said. "In fact, Ifind myself here without any business at all; the case against Mr. Holloway is absolutely insupportable. He shot a man who was trying to killhim, and that's all there is to it. I therefore pray your Honors todismiss the case against him and discharge him from custody. "

Captain Greibenfeld bounded to his feet. 

"Your Honors, I fully realize that the defendant is now beyond thejurisdiction of this court, but let me point out that I and my associatesare here participating in this case in the hope that the classification ofthis planet may be determined, and some adequate definition of sapienceestablished. These are most serious questions, your Honors. "

"But, your Honors, " Coombes protested, "we can't go through the farce oftrying a dead man. "

"_People of the Colony of Baphomet_ versus _Jamshar Singh, Deceased_, charge of arson and sabotage, A. E. 604, " the Honorable Gustavus AdolphusBrannhard interrupted. 

Yes, you could find a precedent in colonial law for almost anything. 

Jack Holloway was on his feet, a Fuzzy cradled in the crook of his leftarm, his white mustache bristling truculently. 

"I am not a dead man, your Honors, and I am on trial here. The reason I'mnot dead is why I am on trial. My defense is that I shot Kurt Borch whilehe was aiding and abetting in the killing of a Fuzzy. I want itestablished in this court that it is murder to kill a Fuzzy. "

The judge nodded slowly. "I will not dismiss the charges against Mr. Holloway, " he said. "Mr. Holloway had been arraigned on a charge ofmurder; if he is not guilty, he is entitled to the vindication of anacquittal. I am afraid, Mr. Coombes, that you will have to go onprosecuting him. "

Another brief stir, like a breath of wind over a grain field, ran throughthe courtroom. The show was going on after all. 

 * * * * *

All the Fuzzies were in court this morning; Jack's six, and the five fromthe constabulary post, and Ben's Flora and Fauna, and the four RuthOrtheris claimed. There was too much discussion going on for anybody tokeep an eye on them. Finally one of the constabulary Fuzzies, eitherDillinger or Dr. Crippen, and Ben Rainsford's Flora and Fauna, camesauntering out into the open space between the tables and the benchdragging the hose of a vacuum-duster. Ahmed Khadra ducked under a tableand tried to get it away from them. This was wonderful; screaming indelight, they all laid hold of the other end, and Mike and Mitzi andSuperego and Complex ran to help them. The seven of them dragged Khadraabout ten feet before he gave up and let go. At the same time, anincipient fight broke out on the other side of the arc of tables betweenthe head of the language department at Mallorysport Academy and aspinsterish amateur phoneticist. At this point, Judge Pendarvis, decidingthat if you can't prevent it, relax and enjoy it, rapped a few times withhis gavel, and announced that court was recessed. 

"You will all please remain here; this is not an adjournment, and if anyof the various groups who seem to be discussing different aspects of theproblem reach any conclusion they feel should be presented in evidence, will they please notify the bench so that court can be reconvened. In anycase, we will reconvene at eleven thirty. "

Somebody wanted to know if smoking would be permitted during the recess. The Chief Justice said that it would. He got out a cigar and lit it. MammaFuzzy wanted a puff: she didn't like it. Out of the corner of his eye, hesaw Mike and Mitzi, Flora and Fauna scampering around and up the stepsbehind the bench. When he looked again, they were all up on it, and Mitziwas showing the court what she had in her shoulder bag. 

He got up, with Mamma and Baby, and crossed to where Leslie Coombes wassitting. By this time, somebody was bringing in a coffee urn from thecafeteria. Fuzzies ought to happen oftener in court. 

 * * * * *

The gavel tapped slowly. Little Fuzzy scrambled up onto Jack Holloway'slap. After five days in court, they had all learned that the gavel meantfor Fuzzies and other people to be quiet. It might be a good idea, Jackthought, to make a little gavel, when he got home, and keep it on thetable in the living room for when the family got too boisterous. Baby, whowasn't gavel-trained yet, started out onto the floor; Mamma dashed afterhim and brought him back under the table. 

The place looked like a courtroom again. The tables were ranged in a neatrow facing the bench, and the witness chair and the jury box were backwhere they belonged. The ashtrays and the coffee urn and the ice tubs forbeer and soft drinks had vanished. It looked like the party was over. Hewas almost regretful; it had been fun. Especially for seventeen Fuzziesand a Baby Fuzzy and a little black-and-white kitten. 

There was one unusual feature; there was now a fourth man on the bench, ingold-braided Navy black; sitting a little apart from the judges, trying tolook as though he weren't there at all--Space Commodore Alex Napier. 

Judge Pendarvis laid down his gavel. "Ladies and gentlemen, are you readyto present the opinions you have reached?" he asked. 

Lieutenant Ybarra, the Navy psychologist, rose. There was a reading screenin front of him; he snapped it on. 

"Your Honors, " he began, "there still exists considerable difference ofopinion on matters of detail but we are in agreement on all major points. This is quite a lengthy report, and it has already been incorporated intothe permanent record. Have I the court's permission to summarize it?"

The court told him he had. Ybarra glanced down at the screen in front ofhim and continued:

"It is our opinion, " he said, "that sapience may be defined as differingfrom nonsapience in that it is characterized by conscious thought, byability to think in logical sequence and by ability to think in termsother than mere sense data. We--meaning every member of every sapientrace--think consciously, and we know what we are thinking. This is not tosay that all our mental activity is conscious. The science of psychologyis based, to a large extent, upon our realization that only a smallportion of our mental activity occurs above the level of consciousness, and for centuries we have been diagraming the mind as an iceberg, one-tenth exposed and nine-tenths submerged. The art of psychiatryconsists largely in bringing into consciousness some of the content ofthis submerged nine-tenths, and as a practitioner I can testify to itsdifficulty and uncertainty. 

"We are so habituated to conscious thought that when we reach someconclusion by any nonconscious process, we speak of it as a 'hunch, ' or an'intuition, ' and question its validity. We are so habituated to actingupon consciously formed decisions that we must laboriously acquire, bysystematic drill, those automatic responses upon which we depend forsurvival in combat or other emergencies. And we are by nature so unawareof this vast submerged mental area that it was not until the first centuryPre-Atomic that its existence was more than vaguely suspected, and itsnature is still the subject of acrimonious professional disputes. "

There had been a few of those, off and on, during the past four days, too. 

"If we depict sapient mentation as an iceberg, we might depict nonsapientmentation as the sunlight reflected from its surface. This is aconsiderably less exact analogy; while the nonsapient mind deals, consciously, with nothing but present sense data, there is a considerableabsorption and re-emission of subconscious memories. Also, there areoccasional flashes of what must be conscious mental activity, in dealingwith some novel situation. Dr. Van Riebeek, who is especially interestedin the evolutionary aspect of the question, suggests that the introductionof novelty because of drastic environmental changes may have forcednonsapient beings into more or less sustained conscious thinking and soinitiated mental habits which, in time, gave rise to true sapience. 

"The sapient mind not only thinks consciously by habit, but it thinks inconnected sequence. It associates one thing with another. It reasonslogically, and forms conclusions, and uses those conclusions as premisesfrom which to arrive at further conclusions. It groups associationstogether, and generalizes. Here we pass completely beyond any comparisonwith nonsapience. This is not merely more consciousness, or more thinking;it is thinking of a radically different kind. The nonsapient mind dealsexclusively with crude sensory material. The sapient mind translates senseimpressions into ideas, and then forms ideas of ideas, in ascending ordersof abstraction, almost without limit. 

"This, finally, brings us to one of the recognized overt manifestations ofsapience. The sapient being is a symbol user. The nonsapient being cannotsymbolize, because the nonsapient mind is incapable of concepts beyondmere sense images. "

Ybarra drank some water, and twisted the dial of his reading screen withthe other hand. 

"The sapient being, " he continued, "can do one other thing. It is acombination of the three abilities already enumerated, but combining themcreates something much greater than the mere sum of the parts. The sapientbeing can imagine. He can conceive of something which has no existencewhatever in the sense-available world of reality, and then he can work andplan toward making it a part of reality. He can not only imagine, but hecan also create. "

He paused for a moment. "This is our definition of sapience. When weencounter any being whose mentation includes these characteristics, we mayknow him for a sapient brother. It is the considered opinion of all of usthat the beings called Fuzzies are such beings. "

Jack hugged the small sapient one on his lap, and Little Fuzzy looked upand murmured, "_He-inta?_"

"You're in, kid, " he whispered. "You just joined the people. "

Ybarra was saying, "They think consciously and continuously. We know thatby instrumental analysis of their electroencephalographic patterns, whichcompare closely to those of an intelligent human child of ten. They thinkin connected sequence; I invite consideration of all the different logicalsteps involved in the invention, designing and making of theirprawn-killing weapons, and in the development of tools with which to makethem. We have abundant evidence of their ability to think beyond presentsense data, to associate, to generalize, to abstract and to symbolize. 

"And above all, they can imagine, not only a new implement, but a new wayof life. We see this in the first human contact with the race which, Isubmit, should be designated as _Fuzzy sapiens_. Little Fuzzy found astrange and wonderful place in the forest, a place unlike anything he hadever seen, in which lived a powerful being. He imagined himself living inthis place, enjoying the friendship and protection of this mysteriousbeing. So he slipped inside, made friends with Jack Holloway and livedwith him. And then he imagined his family sharing this precious comfortand companionship with him, and he went and found them and brought themback with him. Like so many other sapient beings, Little Fuzzy had abeautiful dream; like a fortunate few, he made it real. "

The Chief Justice allowed the applause to run on for a few minutes beforeusing his gavel to silence it. There was a brief colloquy among the threejudges, and then the Chief Justice rapped again. Little Fuzzy lookedperplexed. Everybody had been quiet after he did it the first time, hadn'tthey?

"It is the unanimous decision of the court to accept the report alreadyentered into the record and just summarized by Lieutenant Ybarra, TFN, andto thank him and all who have been associated with him. 

"It is now the ruling of this court that the species known as _Fuzzy fuzzyholloway zarathustra_ is in fact a race of sapient beings, entitled to therespect of all other sapient beings and to the full protection of the lawof the Terran Federation. " He rapped again, slowly, pounding the decisioninto the legal framework. 

Space Commodore Napier leaned over and whispered; all three of the judgesnodded emphatically. The naval officer rose. 

"Lieutenant Ybarra, on behalf of the Service and of the Federation, Ithank you and those associated with you for a lucid and excellent report, the culmination of work which reflects credit upon all who participated init. I also wish to state that a suggestion made to me by Lieutenant Ybarraregarding possible instrumental detection of sapient mentation is beingcredited to him in my own report, with the recommendation that it be givenimportant priority by the Bureau of Research and Development. Perhaps thenext time we find people who speak beyond the range of human audition, whohave fur and live in a mild climate, and who like their food raw, we'llknow what they are from the beginning. "

Bet Ybarra gets another stripe, and a good job out of this. Jack hoped so. Then Pendarvis was pounding again. 

"I had almost forgotten; this is a criminal trial, " he confessed. "It isthe verdict of this court that the defendant, Jack Holloway, is not guiltyas here charged. He is herewith discharged from custody. If he or hisattorney will step up here, the bail bond will be refunded. " He puzzledLittle Fuzzy by hammering again with his gavel to adjourn court. 

This time, instead of keeping quiet, everybody made all the noise theycould, and Uncle Gus was holding him high over his head and shouting:

"The _winnah_! By unanimous decision!"

XVII

Ruth Ortheris sipped at the tart, cold cocktail. It was good; oh, it wasgood, all good! The music was soft, the lights were dim, the tables werefar apart; just she and Gerd, and nobody was paying any attention to them. And she was clear out of the business, too. An agent who testified incourt always was expended in service like a fired round. They'd want herback, a year from now, to testify when the board of inquiry came out fromTerra, but she wouldn't be Lieutenant j. G. Ortheris then, she'd be Mrs. Gerd van Riebeek. She set down the glass and rubbed the sunstone on herfinger. It was a lovely sunstone, and it meant such a lovely thing. 

And we're getting married with a ready-made family, too. Four Fuzzies anda black-and-white kitten. 

"You're sure you really want to go to Beta?" Gerd asked. "When Napier getsthis new government organized, it'll be taking over Science Center. Wecould both get our old jobs back. Maybe something better. "

"You don't want to go back?" He shook his head. "Neither do I. I want togo to Beta and be a sunstone digger's wife. "

"And a Fuzzyologist. "

"And a Fuzzyologist. I couldn't drop that now. Gerd, we're only beginningwith them. We know next to nothing about their psychology. "

He nodded seriously. "You know, they may turn out to be even wiser than weare. "

She laughed. "Oh, Gerd! Let's don't get too excited about them. Why, they're like little children. All they think about is having fun. "

"That's right. I said they were wiser than we are. They stick to importantthings. " He smoked silently for a moment. "It's not just their psychology;we don't know anything much about their physiology, or biology either. " Hepicked up his glass and drank. "Here; we had eighteen of them in all. Seventeen adults and one little one. Now what kind of ratio is that? Andthe ones we saw in the woods ran about the same. In all, we sighted abouta hundred and fifty adults and only ten children. "

"Maybe last year's crop have grown up, " she began. 

"You know any other sapient races with a one-year maturation period?" heasked. "I'll bet they take ten or fifteen years to mature. Jack's BabyFuzzy hasn't gained a pound in the last month. And another puzzle; thiscraving for Extee Three. That's not a natural food; except for the cerealbulk matter, it's purely synthetic. I was talking to Ybarra; he waswondering if there mightn't be something in it that caused an addiction. "

"Maybe it satisfies some kind of dietary deficiency. "

"Well, we'll find out. " He inverted the jug over his glass. "Think wecould stand another cocktail before dinner?"

 * * * * *

Space Commodore Napier sat at the desk that had been Nick Emmert's andlooked at the little man with the red whiskers and the rumpled suit, whowas looking back at him in consternation. 

"Good Lord, Commodore; you can't be serious?"

"But I am. Quite serious, Dr. Rainsford. "

"Then you're nuts!" Rainsford exploded. "I'm no more qualified to beGovernor General than I'd be to command Xerxes Base. Why, I never held anadministrative position in my life. "

"That might be a recommendation. You're replacing a veteranadministrator. "

"And I have a job. The Institute of Zeno-Sciences--"

"I think they'll be glad to give you leave, under the circumstances. Doctor, you're the logical man for this job. You're an ecologist; you knowhow disastrous the effects of upsetting the balance of nature can be. TheZarathustra Company took care of this planet, when it was their property, but now nine-tenths of it is public domain, and people will be coming infrom all over the Federation, scrambling to get rich overnight. You'llknow how to control things. "

"Yes, as Commissioner of Conservation, or something I'm qualified for. "

"As Governor General. Your job will be to make policy. You can appoint theadministrators. "

"Well, who, for instance?"

"Well, you're going to need an Attorney General right away. Who will youappoint for that position?"

"Gus Brannhard, " Rainsford said instantly. 

"Good. And who--this question is purely rhetorical--will you appoint asCommissioner of Native Affairs?"

 * * * * *

Jack Holloway was going back to Beta Continent on the constabularyairboat. Official passenger: Mr. Commissioner Jack Holloway. And hisstaff: Little Fuzzy, Mamma Fuzzy, Baby Fuzzy, Mike, Mitzi, Ko-Ko andCinderella. Bet they didn't know they had official positions!

Somehow he wished he didn't have one himself. 

"Want a good job, George?" he asked Lunt. 

"I have a good job. "

"This'll be a better one. Rank of major, eighteen thousand a year. Commandant, Native Protection Force. And you won't lose seniority in theconstabulary; Colonel Ferguson'll give you indefinite leave. "

"Well, cripes, Jack, I'd like to, but I don't want to leave the kids. AndI can't take them away from the rest of the gang. "

"Bring the rest of the gang along. I'm authorized to borrow twenty menfrom the constabulary as a training cadre, and you only have sixteen. Yoursergeants'll get commissions, and all your men will be sergeants. I'mgoing to have a force of a hundred and fifty for a start. "

"You must think the Fuzzies are going to need a lot of protection. "

"They will. The whole country between the Cordilleras and the West CoastRange will be Fuzzy Reservation and that'll have to be policed. Then theFuzzies outside that will have to be protected. You know what's going tohappen. Everybody wants Fuzzies; why, even Judge Pendarvis approached meabout getting a pair for his wife. There'll be gangs hunting them to sell, using stun-bombs and sleepgas and everything. I'm going to have to set upan adoption bureau; Ruth will be in charge of that. And that'll mean a lotof investigators--"

Oh, it was going to be one hell of a job! Fifty thousand a year would bechicken feed to what he'd lose by not working his diggings. But somebodywould have to do it, and the Fuzzies were his responsibility. 

Hadn't he gone to law to prove their sapience?

 * * * * *

They were going home, home to the Wonderful Place. They had seen manywonderful places, since the night they had been put in the bags: the placewhere everything had been light and they had been able to jump so high andland so gently, and the place where they had met all the others of theirpeople and had so much fun. But now they were going back to the oldWonderful Place in the woods, where it had all started. 

And they had met so many Big Ones, too. Some Big Ones were bad, but only afew; most Big Ones were good. Even the one who had done the killing hadfelt sorry for what he had done; they were all sure of that. And the otherBig Ones had taken him away, and they had never seen him again. 

He had talked about that with the others--with Flora and Fauna, and Dr. Crippen, and Complex, and Superego, and Dillinger and Lizzie Borden. Nowthat they were all going to live with the Big Ones, they would have to usethose funny names. Someday they would find out what they meant, and thatwould be fun, too. And they could; now the Big Ones could put things intheir ears and hear what they were saying, and Pappy Jack was learningsome of their words, and teaching them some of his. 

And soon all the people would find Big Ones to live with, who would takecare of them and have fun with them and love them, and give them theWonderful Food. And with the Big Ones taking care of them, maybe more oftheir babies would live and not die so soon. And they would pay the BigOnes back. First they would give their love and make them happy. Later, when they learned how, they would give their help, too. 

 * * * * *

Transcriber's note: Numerous typographical errors have been repaired.