"And I no less," said Julian.

Sunje inspected Glawen sidelong.

"Bureau B? What a fascinating line of work! As I understand it, you patrol the shores arid guard the Conservancy from attack?"

"That is a fair statement," said Glawen.

"Although for a fact we have other duties as well."

"Would you think me impertinent if I asked to see your gun?"

Glawen smiled politely.

"You are under a misapprehension. We handle guns only when out on patrol."

"Oh, what a shame! I have long wondered whether the patrollers truly filed notches for every Yip they had killed."

Again Glawen smiled.

"I'd be filing every minute of my spare time! My business is killing Yips, not keeping a head count, which never could be wholly exact. When I set fire to a crowded boatload, I can only estimate the casualties. In any event, it's a useless statistic, since for every Yip I kill, two or three step forward. The sport has lost its zest."

Milo asked: "Could you possibly take Sunje out on a patrol and let her shoot a few Yips of her own?"

"I don't see why not." Glawen turned to Sunje.

"Mind you, I can't guarantee any sport. Sometimes days or even weeks go by without a single honest shot."

Julian looked at Sunje.

"What do you say? Here's your chance, if you're ready for it."

Sunje stalked across the room and flung herself into a chair.

"I think you're all rather vapid."

Milo told Glawen: "Perhaps I should mention that Sunje endorses the program of the New Humanists, who are in turn the cutting edge ofthePeefers."

"LPFers, if you don't mind."

"These are terms and phrases from the nomenclature of Naturalist politics," Milo explained to Glawen.

"I, P and F stand for "Life," "Peace' and "Freedom." Julian is an ardent member of the group."

Glawen said: "With such a slogan, how dare anyone raise his voice in opposition?"

"It's generally agreed that the slogan is the best part of the program," said Milo.

Julian ignored Milo's remark.

"Against all sanity, opponents to the great LPF movement not only exist but flourish like noxious weeds."

"These are evidently the "DWSers': the advocates of "Death," "War' and "Slavery." Am I right?" said Glawen.

"They are clever and devious!" said Julian.

"Never would they flaunt their true colors so brazenly. Instead they call themselves Chartists and think to hold the high ground by waving funny old documents at us."

Milo said: "These documents are known as the Articles of the Naturalist Society and are otherwise known as the Charter.

Julian, why do you not read them someday?"

Julian made a debonair gesture.

"Far easier to argue from ignorance."

"All this comes as a shock to me," said Glawen.

"At the Station we consider the Charter to be the First Law of the Universe. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be a Yip, a madman or the Devil himself."

Wayness said: "Julian, which is it with you?"

Julian considered.

"I have been called a bumptious young pest, a shrike and a doodle-wit, and today already the epithet 'vapid' has been used, but I am neither Yip, madman nor Devil! When all is taken with all, I am no more than an earnest young fellow not greatly different from Milo."

"Hold hard there!" exclaimed Milo.

"I'm not entirely sure that Julian intends a compliment!"

"It must be a compliment!" said Wayness.

"Julian would never identify himself with anything other than the finest and best, or at least the most stylish."

Milo said reluctantly: "I agree to points of similarity. We both wear our shoes with the toes pointing forward. We both use proper table utensils, if only to keep from biting our fingers. But we do have differences. I am staid and methodical, while Julian spatters clever ideas in all directions like a dog scratching off fleas. Where he gets them I'm sure I don't know."

"I can offer a rather pitiful explanation," said Julian.

"When I was little, I read a great deal, night and day, and thereby absorbed the ideas of five hundred savants. Upon trying to assimilate this massive lump of squirming postulations, I suffered spasm after spasm of intellectual indigestion which " Wayness held up her hand.

"I should mention that lunch will soon be served and if you are about to extend your metaphor into details of the consequent diarrhea, you might put some of us out of appetite. Poor Sunje already looks a bit clammy and ill."

Julian bowed.

"Your point is well-taken. I will moderate my language. Briefly, when an idea, clever or otherwise, enters my head, I wonder as to its source. Is this idea truly mine or am I simply regurgitating the notions of someone else?

Therefore I often hesitate to put a wonderful concept forward as my own for fear that someone wiser and more erudite than myself will recognize it and jeer at me for my plagiarism."

"An interesting idea!" said Milo.