Her voice slowed and lowered for the sake of emphasis. "All of our women--except for two or three--might die and the clan would live on. The sterilies certainly might all die, and the clan live on. Even the children could all die and the clan live on. _But if our husband dies, the clan dies._ The greatest responsibility of every member of any clan is to protect the husband. Under no circumstances is he to be endangered. You know this, it should not have to be brought to your attention." There was a strong murmur of assent from those seated before them. Alan said, "But, Sally, I saved your lives! And if I hadn't, I would have been captured by the Crows and Horses and you would have lost me at any rate." This was hard for Sally Wolf, but she said, "Then, at least, _they_ would have had you. If you had died, in your foolhardiness, you would have been gone for all of us. Alan, two clans, husbandless clans, united in this attempt to capture you from us. While we fought to protect our husband, the life of our clan, we hold no rancor against them. In their position, we would have done the same. Much rather would we see you taken by them, than to see you dead. Even though the Wolf clan might die, the race must go on." She added, but not very believably, "If they had captured you, perhaps we could have, in our turn, captured a husband from some other clan." "The reason we probably couldn't," Vivian said mildly, "is that since we've turned to agriculture and settled, our numbers have dropped off by half. We had more than sixty warriors while we were hunter-foragers." "That's enough, Vivian," Sally snapped. "The question isn't being discussed this afternoon." "Ought to be," somebody whispered down in front. "Order," Alan said. He knew it was a growing belief in the clan that giving up the nomadic life had been a mistake. From raiders, they had become the raided. Sally said, "The second order of business is the disposal of the Horse and Crow prisoners captured in the action today." Vivian said, "We can't afford to waste valuable ammunition. I say shove them into the canyon." Most of those seated in the hall approved of that. Some were puzzled of face, wondering why the matter hadn't been left simply in the scout chief's hands. Sally said, dryly, "I haven't formed an opinion myself. However, our chairman has some words to say." Vivian looked at Alan as though he was a precocious child. She shook her head. "You cutie, you. You're getting bigger and bigger for your britches every day." Two or three of the warriors echoed her by chuckling fondly. Alan said nothing to that, needing to maintain what dignity and prestige he could muster. He stood and faced them and waited for their silence before saying, "You feminine members of the clan are too busy with work and with defense to pursue some of the studies for which we men find time."