Scharde emphatically endorsed Glawen's thesis.

"You are exactly right! The chances of a sudden Yip attack are remote indeed: probably, on any given day, not more than one in ten thousand. This means that twenty or twenty-five years might pass before we are surprised and murdered by raging grinning Yips!"

Glawen grumbled: "Now you're making fun of me. I'll be patrolling with Kirdy Wook, which makes it worse."

"Oh? I thought that you liked Kirdy."

"I have nothing against him except that he's a bore." The Yips reacted to the surveillance with what seemed no more than bemused bewilderment but seasoned Yip-watchers thought to sense bitter disappointment beneath the usual affability.

Not everyone admitted even the slight possibility of a bloody Yip rampage. Namour, cool and sardonic, commented:

"I'm glad I'm not in charge around here. If I laid down decisions like this, I'd be laughed out of my job."

Chiike chanced to hear the remark.

"You're not surprised by that pile of loot out yonder?"

"Of course I'm surprised."

"Who do you think they expected to shoot with those guns?

Tourists

Namour shrugged, "I stopped trying to understand the Yips long ago. But I know this: not one of them could organize so much as a I frog fight without falling out of a tree." i "Maybe someone is helping them plan." ^ "Maybe. But I'd surely like to see some pieces of hard evidence! before I turned the station topsy-turvy."

Kirdy Wook, senior to Glawen, had been put in charge of the patrol. Kirdy; a large fair young man with rather heavy features and round china-blue eyes, begrudged every instant of the three-hour patrol.

"The emergency is over, if it existed in the first place," he declared in curt, positive tones.

"So why are we trundling back and forth in the dark?"

"I know why I'm here," said Glawen.

"Because Bodwyn Wook gave the orders."

Kirdy grunted.

"I'm certainly not here of my own accord.

It's carrying caution too far! Just possibly the Yips might have run riot and cut a throat or two, but anything more I find unreasonable."

"More? What more do you want?"

Kirdy uttered a peevish curse.

"Must I explain everything in words of one syllable or less? The Yips have never done it before, have they?"

"That's why we're here talking about it."

"I don't quite pick that up," said Kirdy.

"If the Yips had killed our grandmothers we would never have been born."

"Bah," grunted Kirdy.

"There's no talking with you when you're in this kind of silly mood."

Glawen was reminded of one of Uther Offaw's remarks in connection with Kirdy: "No mystery: Kirdy is simply old before his time." Aries had replied somewhat dubiously: "I'm not so sure! He's a most ardent Mummer, and a roaring Bold Lion!" Uther Offaw shrugged.

"He's probably just a bit shy."

Kirdy now grumbled: "I wonder how long they'll keep this patrol going."

"Until after Parilia, at least, so my father says."

Kirdy made a mental calculation.

"So then on Smollen we'll have the late evening duty! Do you know what that means?

We'll miss the Phantasmagoria and the Masque!"

In dismay Glawen realized that Kirdy was exactly right, and that he would not see Sessily in her butterfly costume.

Despondently he said:

"There's nothing we can do about it. So we might as well like it."

Kirdy grunted.

"I notice that the bigwigs aren't out here in the dark walking patrol--just the cadets and junior officers."

"That's in the elemental nature of things. I'm not clever, but I know at least that much."

"I know it too, but I don't like it ... Well, just another twenty minutes; then we can go home and sleep."

The next morning was the start of Parilia week. Over breakfast Scharde notified Glawen that today the new Conservator would be arriving at Clattuc House.

"So wash well behind your ears and practice saying: "Yes, Lady Wayness," and "Quite right. Sir Milo.""

Glawen looked up in shock, then realized that Scharde was joking.

"Just the same, I wish I knew what to expect. Are they odd, or peculiar? Should I talk about the ecology of Cadwal? Or avoid the subject? Will I be required to dance with the girl?"

Scharde grinned.

"Of course! Where is your gallantry? Would you rather dance with the boy?"

"Hmmf. I won't know for sure until after I see the girl."