"Sign the paper, then I will go.

There will be a final ferry to pick up persons now at the hotel, then no more. Sign, if you please--though of course it is not necessary, since there are witnesses to your conduct."

The clerk pushed the document away and managed an ironic grin.

"Come, come, sir. This document is ridiculous, as you well know."

"I am going out upon the terrace for breakfast," said Scharde.

"When I am finished I will return to Araminta Station, unless you bring me a definite response from Titus Pompo."

Euphorbius the clerk, now somewhat crestfallen, said: "Sir, you are truly most importunate. But I will see what can be done."

"Thank you." Scharde went out on the terrace, selected a wicker table under a pale green parasol and made a breakfast upon the piquant foods of Yipton.

Toward the end of his meal three members of Titus Pompo's elite Oomps marched out upon the terrace and approached his table. The officer in charge of the detail halted in front of Scharde, performed a crisp bow.

"Sir, you are summoned by Titus Pompo the Oomphaw to an audience, at this moment."

Scharde rose to his feet.

"Lead the way."

The Oomps marched from the terrace, with Scharde coming a few paces behind: across the lobby and into a fastness of corridors, dogleg halls, creaking bamboo stairs; past ranked doors and apertures giving into unlit spaces, up creaking bamboo stairs and down, high under the roof, where chinks in the palm fronds showed glints of light, low to where he could hear the plash of lagoon water around bamboo posts, finally through a bamboo door into a room furnished with a pink rug patterned in dark red and blue, a couch upholstered in deep rose-pink, with a pair of small side tables, each supporting a shaded lamp casting a subdued glow about the room.

Scharde advanced slowly into the room, looking right and left and not liking what he saw. He studied the couch a moment, then turned to examine the opposite wall, which was constructed of bamboo rods

woven into a mesh, with interstices two inches square opening into dark space, or so it seemed.

The Oomp captain indicated the couch.

"Be seated; make no disturbance."

The Oomps departed; Scharde was left alone. He stood listening. No sound could be heard, save a far faint all-pervading noise.

Scharde again examined the couch and the wall behind. He turned away and went to stand by the side wall. He was obviously under surveillance: possibly through the mesh.

There seemed no reason, however, except for the joy of deceit for its own sake.

Scharde leaned back against the wall and settled himself for the wait which his ruffling of sensibilities almost guaranteed, and which a show of impatience could only extend. He closed his eyes and pretended to doze.

Minutes passed: ten, then fifteen, the irreducible minimum to be expected under the circumstances.

At half an hour, Scharde yawned and stretched, and began to consider his options, which at the moment were confined to waiting with all the dignity he could muster.

At about forty minutes, when "absentminded indifference, colored with contempt" began to verge into "purposeful insult," there came a scrape of movement in the space at the other side of the mesh.

A voice spoke: "Scharde Clattuc, what is your business with Titus Pompo?"

Scharde's diaphragm jerked and twitched, for reasons unclear, since the voice was unfamiliar. He asked: "Who is talking?"

"You may accept these as the words of Titus Pompo. Why are you

' Cultural psychologists have defined the symbology of "wait times" and its i variation from culture to culture. The significance of the intervals is determined by a large number of factors, and the student can easily list for himself, out of his own :

experience, those which are relevant to his own culture. :

"Wait times," in terms of social perception, range from no wait whatever to weeks and months. In one context a wait of five minutes will be interpreted as "unpardonable insolence"; at another time and place a wait of only three days is considered a signal i of benign favor.

The use of an exactly calculated wait time, as every person familiar with the conventions of his own culture understands, can be used as an assertion of dominance, or "putting one in one's place," by legal and nonviolent methods. s The subject has many fascinating ramifications. For instance. Person A wishes to:

assert his superior status over Person B, and keeps him waiting an hour. At the?;

thirty-minute mark, which B already feels to be unacceptable and humiliating, A) sends B a small tray of tea and sweetcakes, a gesture which B cannot rebuff without j loss of dignity. A thereby forces B to wait a full hour and B must also thank A fofj, his graciousness and bounty in the matter of the inexpensive refreshments. When! well-executed, this is a beautiful tactic, i not using the couch which was provided for your convenience?"

"That was a kind thought, but I don't like the color."

"Really? It is my favorite."

"The couch also looks as if it might fold suddenly backward when one least expected it. I prefer not to risk pranks of this sort."

"You have an uneasy temperament!"

"Still, I am visible ... No doubt you have good reasons for not showing yourself."

There was silence for a moody few seconds, then: "In response to your demands, an audience has been conceded to you; do not waste the occasion by belaboring the obvious."

The voice, of neutral timbre and measured intonation, seemed almost mechanical, and rasped, as if it had been modified by overloaded filters.

"I will try to keep to the business at hand," said Scharde.

"This is a recent murder at Araminta Station. There was a witness, or a near-witness, named Zamian Lemew Gabriskies.

He is now here at Yipton. I therefore request that you find this person and give him into my custody."

"Certainly, and without hesitation! But I must charge you a service fee of one thousand sols."

'"You will be paid nothing for conduct required of you by the law, which you know as well as I do, perhaps better."

"I know your law, certainly, but on the Lutwen Islands we use my law."

"Not so. I agree that you exercise a personal rule here, but only by default, in the absence of established authority, which may be reasserted at any time. The situation is tolerated only as a temporary stopgap, and because, in general, proper social order seems to be maintained--give or take a few distasteful circumstances. In other words you are allowed to rule because it is expedient, not because you have the acknowledged right to do so. The moment you step out of line and start flouting established law, this temporary accommodation comes to an end."

"Use whatever words you like," said the voice.

"The Lutwen Islands are in fact independent, like it or not. Let us all recognize reality, starting with the Conservator. His penalties are insufferably impertinent."

"I know nothing of penalties."