It was, I fancied, upon this human instinct which Graff now was playing. Coupling with it an appeal to the latent cupidity which lies in every human breast. He was succeeding. I knew that at this moment the Garlands--people and government--felt more friendly toward the Brauns than they ever had before. Father and Kean were convinced that Graff was playing a double game. What could it be? He might be trying to trick the Garlands to serve his own ends. But how? * * * * * Strange walk we had that morning through the city of Garla! My words convey the merest sketch of its strangeness. Insect workers everywhere. Patient, silent, methodical as well-trained domestic animals, yet with a far higher intelligence. I gazed at what might have been a double line of giant red ants, carrying boxes down an incline into the forest. Patient workers; suddenly I was struck with the feeling that there was a sullen resentment upon them; a smoldering hate for their human masters. We saw a few Brauns; swaggering fellows flushed with a new sense of their importance. They were dressed in many complex garments. At sight of them the cynical thought came to me that in clothes and manner they might have been a burlesque of us on modern earth. They eyed us with hostile stares. "There's Kean," said Hulda. We were beyond the storehouse, back on the street. The government house was only a block or so away. Kean approached. "I have been sen' to you from the Council. They will see you, Professor, but no one else." Father was taken aback. "You mean, not my son--nor his friends--" "Jus' you. So they sen' me to say. They would have you come now." "I'll come," said father grimly. "Look here, Kean--" "They tell me, Professor, they will have nothing definite to say to you this morning. After Graff's meeting to-night, they will decide." "What do you mean by that?" father demanded. Dan spoke up. "The idea is, if the Garland public seems enthusiastic about Graff's invasion--then they'll turn us down. Isn't that it, Kean?" "Yes, I fear that is it. But if our people would favor helping earth--" "Don't worry," exclaimed Freddie. "They won't." A commotion near us checked him. Zetta murmured: "Graff!" A huge figure of a man was coming slowly along the cross-street, with a half admiring, wholly awed throng of the Garlands around him. He saw us, waved the crowd back and, with a leap over the thirty feet of intervening street, he stood before us. Our insect guards rose upright, eyed father, and stood alert. Behind me I saw three young Garland men, with metal objects like small projectors in their hands. Government street guards. They were watching Graff narrowly, but they did not interfere. "Professor Vanderstuyft--" He spoke English; his manner was courteous, but authoritative. "I wish to speak with Zetta--one moment."