Some folk were especially intrigued by what they considered a hint of an alien, or nonhuman, quality, which just as many others failed to perceive.

The gates opened; the Yips filed past a desk, announced their names in soft slurred voices and received their work permits. Namour and the six youths stood to the side, watching the process.

"Alike as peas in a pod," Kiper reported to Glawen.

"That's how they look to me."

"It might be that we look exactly alike to them."

"I hope not," said Kiper.

"I wouldn't want even a Yip to think that I looked like Uther or Aries."

Uther laughed, but Aries turned a haughty glance over his shoulder.

"I heard that, Kiper. Such remarks are not well advised."

"Kiper is very ugly," said Uther.

"I endorse his remark."

"Well, yes," said Aries.

"On those grounds I do too."

Uther asked: "Have you noticed the odor, when the breeze blows this way? It's the typical Yip reek, that you notice when you go out on the Concourse at Yipton." He referred to a faint soft scent, like water weeds with a hint of spice and indefinable human exudation.

"Some say it's a result of their diet," Namour told the group.

"Personally, I suspect that a Yip smells like a Yip, and that is that."

"I'm not bothered," said Aries.

"Oh, my sacred Clattuc elbow! Look yonder at those three lovely creatures! I'll smell them from morning till night, and ask for more!

Namour, you may assign them to me, here and now!"

Namour turned him a cool glance.

"Certainly, if you're willing to pay."

"How much?"

"They come high, especially those with the black earrings.

That means they're associated with a man. In loose terms:

married."

"What of the others? Are they virgins?"

"How should I know? They still come high."

"What a pity!" moaned Aries.

"Can't I have just one of them free?"

"You'd have a knife in the ribs just as quickly. The men are not meek; don't let those placid faces fool you. They don't like us in the first place, and even less when we start fooling with their girls unless we pay. They'll do anything for money, but never try to cheat them. A few years ago a tourist forced himself on a Yip girl while she picked grapes. Like a fool he refused to pay. Two Yips held him while a third pushed a grape stake down his throat all the way. A nasty business."

"What happened to the Yips?"

"Nothing. If you play, pay. Better yet, leave the Yip girls alone."

Uther Offaw glanced skeptically toward Namour.

"Does that apply to you? There always seems to be a pretty Yip girl fluffing out your pillows and another running your bath."

Namour allowed a faint smile to appear on his handsome face.

"Never mind about me. Over a lifetime I've learned a hundred little tricks which I call lubrications. Most of them I keep to myself, but I'll share one of them with you, free of charge: "Never push too hard at anything; it might start pushing back."" Uther frowned.

"Very profound, and I'm grateful, especially since it's free. But what's it got to do with Yip girls?"

"Nothing. Or perhaps everything. You puzzle it out." Namour went off to deal with the new contingent of workers.

The six youths returned along the Beach Road to the lyceum.

In the open-air refectory they discovered a group of girls regaling themselves with fruit ices. Two, Ticia Wook and Lexy Laverty, were legitimate beauties; the other two, Jerdys Diffin and Cloe Offaw, were definitely attractive.

All were a year or two older than Glawen and outside his field of interest.

Uther Offaw, though a freethinker, could be most courtly and polite when the need arose. He now called out in his best voice: "Girls! Why do you bloom here unseen in the shade of the gadroon tree?"

"They're not really blooming," said Kiper.

"They are eating right and left like little gluttons."

Ticia in a single glance had gauged the quality of the boys.

All were either too young or too callow and good for nothing but practice. She looked down at her dish.

"A mango smash?

That's far from gluttony."

"In that case, why bother?"

Jerdys said: "If you must know, this is a meeting of the "Medusa Cult', and we are planning our program for next year."