"I am a Clattuc and Kirdy is a Wook. For us the best is none too good; we use both jam and butter on our bread."

"Indeed."

"Absolutely. How do we arrive at the Rolinda? Must we walk through the heat?"

"Of course not. The hotel will place a luxury vehicle, with a cooled interior and a selection of ales and beers, at your service."

"As a compliment to their guests?"

The adviser raised his eyebrows.

"My dear sir!"

"There is a charge, then."

"A substantial charge, I assure you. There is an omnibus. It is used by the overly thrifty, the penurious, Sanart Scientists and vagrants. It is fast, convenient and cheap, but has no other advantages. If, like myself, you are cursed with a streak of wayward insouciance, you might try the omnibus, just for a lark. It may be boarded directly in front of the terminal."

"It will serve us well enough. One more question: which are the principal tourist agencies?"

"I would unhesitatingly suggest, as the most prestigious, the Phlodoric Agency and Bucyrus Tours. You will find both offices along the Parade at the Hotel Rolinda, for your easy convenience."

"And persons traveling off-world would normally use these agencies?"

"That is correct, sir."

Glawen and Kirdy boarded the omnibus and were conveyed to the Hotel Rolinda: a complex intermesh of four low near-flat domes arranged to leave a space eighty yards in diameter at the center. In this space grew a garden which was shaded from the most ardent Blaiselight by a high shell of gray glass. To right and left rose a pair of slender gray glass towers, housing accommodations for the guests.

The omnibus approached the hotel, halted under a gray-glass portiere; Glawen and Kirdy alighted into cool wafts of chilled air. They passed through a curtain of scented mist into a dim space of such large dimension that it could not immediately be apprehended. A white ceiling, low at the side walls, curved gently to a height of thirty feet at the center. The business desk ranged along the wall to one side;

to the other a dining area flanked the jungle garden.

Glawen and Kirdy crossed to the desk, where they were assigned rooms on the nineteenth level of the north tower.

The rooms, so they discovered, were furnished comfortably in a style which was bland and neutral but in any case rendered unnoticeable by the view through the gray-glass walls.

Glawen stood looking out across the landscape, so different from any he had known before. Hundreds of low white domes were strewn irregularly and seemingly at random over the ground out to the edge of his vision, each surrounded by masses of dark foliage. To the south, then away to right and left, spread the placid Mirling, showing a silken blue surface to the Blaiselight. An intriguing and unusual panorama, thought Glawen, if perhaps somewhat over stark over bright and too insistently blue and white.

Glawen turned away from the view. In a bathroom of monolithic gray-blue glass, illuminated by some mysterious means from within its own substance, Glawen bathed: first in a gush of scented foam, then a rinse of scented water.

Returning to the bedroom he discovered that loose white garments in the mode of Poinciana had been laid out for his use. He dressed, then went out into the hall and knocked on Kirdy's door.

There was no immediate response. Glawen was on the point of turning away when the door swung open. Kirdy looked out, sandy hair tousled, his large ruddy face set in surly lines.

"Why all the disturbance?" He took note of Glawen's garments and stared in suspicion.

"Where are you going?"

"Down to the lobby. I want to ask some questions. Join me when you are ready, and we'll have lunch."

Kirdy made a peevish face.

"You should have warned me that you were going out. I planned to eat in my room."

"Eat wherever you like. Come down when you're ready. If you don't see me, sit down and wait; I won't be leaving the hotel. I don't think."

"Oh, devil take all! Wait for me, then. I'll be fifteen minutes or so. Where did you find the clothes?"

"They were laid out while I was bathing. But I'm not waiting. I have work to do. If you don't see me, sit down and watch the ladies walk back and forth."

Kirdy growled: "Always you make things difficult! Why can't you

be sensible for a change? You must learn to take me and my opinions into account."

"That is absurd," said Glawen.

"It's you who must be sensible. We're here on serious business!"

Kirdy's throat suddenly pulsed and seemed to swell. He spoke in a voice rumbling with the sound of doom.

"I feel an absence of respect. You have no care for my feelings. Your eyes fleer half closed in scorn. You ignore my words as if I had not spoken, and give glib evasions. You make flippancies of me and my great studies. I am not a person to be taken lightly, as I have demonstrated on several occasions. You may learn as much in your turn."

Glawen stared blankly, at a loss for words. He became angry.

Crazy or not, Kirdy must be brought up short. An instant later he reconsidered. Anger would only amuse and reinforce Kirdy in his present phase. Glawen spoke coldly.

"Your manner is unacceptable. It is clear that we cannot work together. Both of us will take pleasure in your return to Cadwal. I will continue the investigation alone."

Kirdy's mouth twisted into a crooked smile.

"Aha, Captain Clattuc! That's what you wanted from the start!"

"Think whatever you like. Bodwyn Wook asked me to bring you along; that is why you are here, in the hope of straightening you out."

"And you blame me for my difficulties? That is generous of you."

"Wrong. I am committed to Bodwyn Wook, and I will continue to put up with you, but only if here and now you decide to straighten out. That means you must act like a normal person. I refuse to cope with your surly fits any longer."

Kirdy glared, opening and closing his hands. Glawen watched him closely, prepared for anything.

"Make up your mind," said Glawen.

Kirdy temporized. He spoke in grumbling tones: "What you ask is easier said than done."

"I suspect it's not so hard as you make out. Proper behavior should be second nature to a Wook. You know how to act; why don't you simply do so?"

"As I told you, it's easier said than done."

"Hard or easy, I don't care. Do it or go home."