"It is time for us to be on our way, if we wish to arrive by dawn."

"The plans have been altered," said Glawen.

"You are to continue into Fexelburg alone."

Bant's round face showed surprise.

"You are staying here?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that unreasonable? You want me to continue into Fexelburg with the omnibus totally empty?"

"So long as the fifty sols are not unreasonable, nothing else matters."

"A truer word was never spoken! In that case, goodbye. It has been a pleasure dealing with you."

The omnibus departed. Glawen went back into the store, where he gratified Keelums with another sol.

"I am to wait for some friends who will be here shortly. You may go back to bed. If we need anything, we will call you."

"Just as you like." Keelums went off upstairs to his bed.

Glawen

turned down the lights and, seating himself by the window, waited in the dark.

Through his mind flashed images from the past two months, in rapid sequence, while he sat looking off into the night. The ultimate joy of his life had come when his feet had touched the rocky hillside. What if Mutis and Funo had been waiting and smiling? His mind veered away from the idea. Would the recollections ever lose their vivid emotional bite? He thought not. Even now his skin crawled to think of the grotesque deeds done to him, Glawen Clattuc. Even so, why should he be surprised? The cosmos took no notice of human rationality, or human anything whatever. As he sat brooding, another curious mood came to trouble his mind: a waft of rending grief and woe, a sadness not to be contemplated, and perhaps beyond understanding.

Glawen stared out into the night. What was happening to him?

He had never before experienced such influences; could they be real? Perhaps his time immured in Zonk's Tomb had brought him a new and unwelcome sensitivity.

The mood waned, leaving a feeling of chill and desolation.

Glawen jumped to his feet and walked back and forth, swinging his arms.

Twenty minutes passed, and half an hour. Glawen went out to stand in front of the store. Down from the sky came a large black flyer, emblazoned with the nine-pointed insignia of the IPCC. It landed on a plot of empty ground behind the store; Plock alighted, followed by five uniformed personnel:

a pair of full agents and three recruits.

Glawen went to meet them, and all trooped into the store, to disturb Keelums anew. Glawen ordered soup for the new arrivals. Then, at Flock's instructions, Glawen called the Pexelburg Central Police Station.

"This is Captain Glawen Clattuc. Connect me at once with Superintendent Wullin, on an important matter."

The response was sardonic.

"At this time of night? Have you had some sort of insane dream? Superintendent Wullin would not desist in his snoring for the Avatar Gundelbah himself.

Try tomorrow."

"The matter is most urgent. Connect me with Inspector Barch.

Tell him Captain Glawen Clattuc is calling."

Inspector Barch came to the telephone.

"Captain Clattuc? I'm surprised to hear from you! I thought that you had gone home long ago. Why do you call while I try to sleep?"

"Because I have information of great importance, and because I am in a state of fury and outrage, both justifiable."

"Apparently you have had some interesting adventures."

"Yes, quite." Glawen gave an account of his adventures, stressing his outrage, and the need for official response without a moment's delay.

"I can hardly overstate the insolence of these freakish people, and their cynical mistreatment of a police officer."

"You have used the correct word," said Barch. ""Freakish' describes them in all adequacy. For this reason, they have been treated perhaps too casually in the past."

Glawen spoke on.

"I was held for two months in a cave which they assured me was Zonk's Tomb. Naturally I discovered no treasure. But the mystery is at last put to rest!" Even as Glawen spoke, he reflected that Barch must have known of his imprisonment. The idea made cordiality difficult.

Barch, however, seemed to have no such trouble; if anything, he was amused.

"You have had an unhappy experience. Still, realities are as they are, and as you know, Lutwiler Country is outside our bailiwick."

"And you propose to take no action?"

"Not so fast! Here on Tassadero, nothing is simple. Things are done in a certain way, and two plus two often totals seven, or perhaps thirty-seven, depending on who is in charge of the reckoning."

"I don't understand this kind of talk," said Glawen.

"I want simplicity, and I want action. Perhaps I should notify the IPCC, since you are worried about your jurisdiction. The IPCC acts anywhere across the Gaean Reach."

"Exactly so, and this is why their efforts are so inept," said Barch.

"The local IPCC are all cookie-pushers. If action is what you want, you have come to the right place.

You are at Flicken?"

"Correct, at Keelums' General Store."

"Stand by the telephone while I call Superintendent Wullin.

He'll surely order a big raid on the Mbnomantic seminary.

But don't call the IPCC; they'll only interfere."